AFRICAN AMERICAN Definition & Meaning

African American

[ af-ri-kuhn uh-mer-i-kuhn ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

an American with Black African ancestry.

adjective

of or relating to African Americans.
��·��·��-��·��·��·��, occurring between the United States and Africa:
Several international charities are promoting African-American cooperation in expanding access to safe drinking water.

African-American

noun

an American of African descent

adjective

of or relating to Americans of African descent

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Usage Note

During the 1980s, many Americans sought to display pride in their immigrant origins. Linguistically, this brought about a brief period of short-form hyphenated designations, like Italo-Americans and Greco-Americans. The Black community also embraced the existing term Afro-American, a label that emphasized geographical or ethnic heritage over skin color. The related label, African American, also saw an increase in use among activists in the 1970s and 1980s. African American was even more widely adopted in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s after high-profile Black leaders advocated for it, arguing, as Jesse Jackson did, that the term brought “proper historical context” and had “cultural integrity.” See Black ¹.

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Usage

This is the currently preferred term in the US for people of African ancestry

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of African American¹

An Americanism dating back to 1780–90

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

I mean surviving abolitionists, some abolitionist feminists, African Americans, other sort of labor activists, they continue to contest.

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The 4K restoration of “Will” is a joint project between the Black Film Center and Archive at Indiana University and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

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At the heart of the attack are collections in the National Museum of African American History and Culture, one of the five most popular D.C. museums in 2024, and the American Women’s History Museum.

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Certain aspects of the Irish experience are similar to those of African Americans, Native Americans and indigenous or colonized groups elsewhere.

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Today it ranks with his “Robert Gould Shaw Memorial” on Boston Common, an elaborate bronze relief that commemorates African American soldiers serving in the Civil War, including two of Frederick Douglass’ sons.

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