Am.

Proper noun

America (plural Americas)

1. A supercontinent consisting of North America, Central America and South America regarded as a whole; in full, the Americas.
   • The results of my examination ... for the most part allied to plants of the cooler part of America, or the uplands of the tropical latitudes ...1847, Joseph Dalton Hooker, “On the Vegetation of the Galapagos Archipelago, as compared with that of some other Tropical Islands and of the Continent of America”, in Transactions of the Linnean...

   Synonyms:

   Americas

2. A country in North America; in full, United States of America.
   • For a long time the dormouse and polecat had seemed to him overfeeble enemies for his restless valour, even as the granary floor seemed to afford too narrow a field. Every day he read the papers of the previous day in the servants' hall of the houses he visited, and it appeared to him that this war...1837, George Sand, translated by Stanley Young, Mauprat, Cassandra Editions, published 1977, →ISBN, page 237
3. A female given name.
4. A town in Limburg, Netherlands.

Noun

American (countable and uncountable, plural Americans)

1. A citizen or national of the United States of America.
   • Americans! your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation... is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the...1852 July 5, Frederick Douglass, speech to the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, Rochester, New York
2. Any inhabitant of the Americas.
3. (historical) A citizen or inhabitant of British America.
4. (archaic) An indigenous inhabitant of the Americas.
   • The Americans believe that all creatures have souls.1711, Joseph Addison, The Spectator, page 56
5. (obsolete, 18th century to 19th century) An inhabitant of French or Spanish New World colonies.
   • In France, when I have announced myself as an American, I have been supposed to belong to one of the French colonies; in Spain, to be from Mexico, or Peru, or some other Spanish-American country.1839, Washington Irving, 'National Nomenclature', The Knickerbocker
6. (colloquial, humorous, informal) The dialect of English spoken in and around the contiguous United States of America.
   • -A . Spanish ; my mother and father speak American ; my brothers and sisters speak Spanish ; when he is in the house , we speak American ; we have American prayers at night before we go to bed . Q. Is that usual in the families of the[…]1871, United States. Commission of Inquiry to Santo Domingo, Report, with the Introductory Message of the President, Special Reports Made to the Commission, State Papers Furnished by the Dominican...

See all 14 meanings of American