Word.ws English Dictionary

un-American

un-American adjective: contrary to the principles, institutions or interests of the United States; anti-American.

Adjective

un-American (comparative more un-American, superlative most un-American)

  1. Contrary to the principles, institutions or interests of the United States; anti-American.
    • Besides, how can you talk about church politics? It would certainly be anti-Catholic and might easily become un-American.1948 August, Aldous Huxley, Ape and Essence, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC
    • In 1959 ex-President Truman, never one to mince words, called the Committee the “most un-American thing in the country today.” Mr. Goodman strongly disagrees: “…unless one is prepared to blank out large and significant patches of our history, there is nothing un-American about the Un-American...1968 July 7, Telford Taylor, “Who's Un-American Now?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  2. (US, informal) Incivil, immoral.
  3. Unrelated to America or the U.S.; untypical of U.S. mores or habits; non-American, not American.
    • [About British filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock:] It’s not often addressed in criticism, but Hitchcock was un-American enough to dwell on the uneasiness or the unreliability of heroes.2017, David Thomson, "Rebecca: Welcome to the Haunted House", The Criterion Collection

Examples of un-American in a sentence

  • In 1959 ex-President Truman, never one to mince words, called the Committee the “most un-American thing in the country today.” Mr.1968 July 7, Telford Taylor, “Who's Un-American Now?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
  • It will distress only those who have the essentially un-American view that change itself is frightening and should be avoided at all costs.1972, Mike Gravel, Citizen Power: A People's Platform, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, →ISBN, page xii:
  • "What was done to our country was wrong and unpatriotic and un-American and nobody has been held to account," he later told the Guardian.2012 February 17, Fiachra Gibbons, quoting Bruce Springsteen, “Bruce Springsteen: ‘What was done to my country was un-American’”, in The...
  • In a way, Trump is the un-American president.2018 March 19, Charles M. Blow, “Trump: The Un-American President”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 09 Nov 2020:

Forms of un-American

comparativemore un-American
superlativemost un-American
alternative formunamerican
alternative formunAmerican

Origin of un-American

From un- + American.

Words formed from un-American

Questions about un-American

What does un-American mean?
Un-American means contrary to the principles, institutions or interests of the United States; anti-American.
How do you use un-American in a sentence?
In 1959 ex-President Truman, never one to mince words, called the Committee the “most un-American thing in the country today.” Mr.
What part of speech is un-American?
Un-American is an adjective.

Words near un-American in the dictionary

  1. UN*X
  2. UN*Xes
  3. un-
  4. un-aged
  5. un-aggro
  6. un-American
  7. un-Americanise
  8. un-Americanised
  9. un-Americanises
  10. un-Americanising
  11. un-Americanize

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: un-American (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “un-American.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/un-american. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.