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America

 - 4 dictionary results

A⋅mer⋅i⋅ca

  [uh-mer-i-kuh]
Use America in a Sentence
–noun
1. United States.
2. North America.
3. South America.
4. Also called the Americas. North and South America, considered together.

United States

 
–noun
a republic in the N Western Hemisphere comprising 48 conterminous states, the District of Columbia, and Alaska in North America, and Hawaii in the N Pacific. 267,954,767; conterminous United States, 3,022,387 sq. mi. (7,827,982 sq. km); with Alaska and Hawaii, 3,615,122 sq. mi. (9,363,166 sq. km). Capital: Washington, D.C. Abbreviation: U.S., US
Also called United States of America, America.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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A·mer·i·ca   (ə-měr'ĭ-kə)   

  1. The United States.

  2. also the A·mer·i·cas (-kəz) The landmasses and islands of North America, Central America, and South America.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

America 
1507, in Cartographer Martin Waldseemüller's treatise "Cosmographiae Introductio," from Mod.L. Americanus, after Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) who made two trips to the New World as a navigator and claimed to have discovered it. His published works put forward the idea that it was a new continent, and he was first to call it Novus Mundus "New World." Amerigo is more easily Latinized than Vespucci. The name Amerigo is Gmc., said to derive from Goth. Amalrich, lit. "work-ruler." The O.E. form of the name has come down as surnames Emmerich, Emery, etc. It. fem. form merged into Amelia. Amerika "U.S. society viewed as racist, fascist, oppressive, etc." first attested 1969; the spelling is Ger., but may also suggest the KKK.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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