Talk:American

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South America

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North America

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Central America

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Caribbean

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Americas (inactive)

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United States

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Disambiguation

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The term American.

A better synopsis?

A person of the Americas, as defined chiefly in Latin America. A citizen of the United States of America, as defined chiefly in Anglo-America. CaribDigita (talk) 18:40, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

But this is the English-language wiki, regarding an English word. If it's defined differently in Latin America and Anglo-America, by definition, the latter should take precedence. Twin Bird (talk) 16:42, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Indeed, this is the English-language Wikipedia; not uniquely for the United States (of America :S). By preferring the USA's usage you are putting aside the opinion of the British, Canadian, Belizean and other Latin American people who actually speak English as their main language. --Isacdaavid (talk) 01:36, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Actually, it's not just US-English usage, but in British, Canadian, Indian, and Caribbean English usage also, and in many other countries where English is widely spoken. A few native English speakers living in Latin American countries don't change what is common usage in English speaking countries around the world. - BilCat (talk) 03:50, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Guyana speaks English and is in America. Guylaen (talk) 03:24, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Requested move 14 January 2015

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Not moved. Almost unanimous consensus that there is no primary topic here, between Americans, United States, and The Americas. (non-admin closure) — Amakuru (talk) 10:23, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

American → American (disambiguation)American (disambiguation) – This page is currently clearly a disambiguation page. American should redirect to United States, as per WP:COMMONNAME, and to match the plural article Americans. This would also save tens of thousands of undisambiguated nationality links in tens of thousands of articles, current and to come. Softlavender (talk) 07:12, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Survey

Feel free to state your position on the renaming proposal by beginning a new line in this section with *'''Support''' or *'''Oppose''', then sign your comment with ~~~~. Since polling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's policy on article titles.

Support as nominator, per my rationale above. Softlavender (talk) 07:15, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Oppose - Americans and United States are separate articles, either of which is a very plausible target when someone searches for/links to American. Realistically, American (word) is also a likely primary target. Without a single, primary target, this is rightly a disambiguation page (and it's self-evident that it doesn't have one - of the first two people to comment, the first apparently believes United States is the most likely target, the second would guess it's Americans, and in all likelihood the third is gonna favour redirecting to The Americas. Note that WP:COMMONNAME has absolutely nothing to say relevant to what this article should be titled, except perhaps to support the status quo, so it's unclear why it's linked as an argument. Wily D 10:35, 14 January 2015 (UTC)
Oppose. It's unusually for a country's adjective to redirect to the country's article. See British, French, German, Mexican, etc. Rob984 (talk) 16:30, 14 January 2015 (UTC)
Oppose per Rob984 -- 65.94.40.137 (talk) 07:22, 15 January 2015 (UTC)
Comment This seems to me to already be a contradictory misnomer type subject. Amerigo Vespucci was an explorer of south America. GregKaye 07:25, 15 January 2015 (UTC)
- Huh? — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽^ʌⱷ҅_ᴥⱷ^ʌ≼ 09:17, 15 January 2015 (UTC)
Oppose: Does not comport with our usual practice (see examples given by Rob984), and that's before we get into the fact that it has multiple meanings ("of or relating to the United States", "of or relating to the Americas", "of or relating to the North American colonies of Great Britain, before and during the American Revolution", etc.). — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽^ʌⱷ҅_ᴥⱷ^ʌ≼ 09:17, 15 January 2015 (UTC)
Oppose. Could refer to the U.S., but just as likely (maybe more so) to American people (or the Americas). Zarcadia (talk) 13:45, 15 January 2015 (UTC)
Oppose per Rob984's comment. CookieMonster755 (talk) 03:56, 16 January 2015 (UTC)
Oppose. The global consensus is fairly clear, except a handful of curious exceptions (Canadian comes to mind). --Joy [shallot] (talk) 19:10, 18 January 2015 (UTC)
Oppose. "American" is very confusing to non-Americans. --SmokeyJoe (talk) 01:08, 22 January 2015 (UTC)
Oppose - dude, Norwegian doesn't redirect to Norway. Red Slash 03:58, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

"US-amerikanisch" listed at Redirects for discussion

A discussion is taking place to address the redirect US-amerikanisch. The discussion will occur at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 May 13#US-amerikanisch until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. _signed,Rosguill ^talk 18:31, 13 May 2021 (UTC)

Suggest moving the order of definitions

As a birth-citizen of the United States who loves geography, I am frustrated by the hegemony of ignorance that my fellow citizens take with them whenever they travel, eroding the simple concepts of geography and politics that the rest of the world has defined.

By the numbers, more people in America live OUTSIDE of the United States than inside. By simple math, the first definition of American should be someone who lives in the Americas, not someone who lives in the United States. Guylaen (talk) 08:30, 28 October 2024 (UTC)

Requested move 20 March 2026

It has been proposed in this section that American be renamed and moved to American (disambiguation)American (disambiguation).

A bot will list this discussion on the requested moves current discussions subpage within an hour of this tag being placed. The discussion may be closed 7 days after being opened, if consensus has been reached (see the closing instructions). Please base arguments on article title policy, and keep discussion succinct and civil.

Please use {{subst:requested move}}. Do not use {{requested move/dated}} directly.

Links: current log • target log • direct move

American → American (disambiguation)American (disambiguation) – This should pretty self-evidently be a primary redirect towards Americans. Most of the major topics in the disambiguation page use American as an adjective because of their relation to the American people. A number of the singular variants of other countries' demonyms redirect to the plural, including Canadian, Pakistani, Nigerian, and New Zealander; ideally, this should be standardized as much as is feasible. Ladtrack (talk) 06:05, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

Survey

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