What do you call someone from the U.S.? [duplicate]
Solution 1:
Use U.S. citizen if you want to be more specific:
- Citizenship identifies an individual's national origin. It defines his/her rights and responsibilities to that country (nationality). Most people have only one country of citizenship, but some can have dual nationality. U.S. citizens can be native-born, foreign-born, or naturalized. They owe their allegiance to the United States and are entitled to its protection.
From www.USA.gov
Solution 2:
I have heard that people who live in South America also often refer to themselves as Americans. That's absolutely true. But when we're speaking, it's usually clear from the context which Americans we're talking about. However, if you do want to be specific, you can always say a citizen of the United States of America instead of an American.
Another possible way to differentiate the two groups of Americans would be to refer to them as either South Americans (Brazilians, Chileans, et cetera) and North Americans (U.S. Americans and Canadians).
But, to be perfectly honest, the term American has a well-established connotation that it means someone from the United States everywhere in the English-speaking world. So, in reality, you would simply say American to refer to someone from the U.S. and you would say Canadian, Brazilian or South American in all other cases.
Solution 3:
Yes, American is still appropriate:
- a citizen of the U.S.
(source: Merriam-Webster)
From the context, it should be clear whether you mean just the U.S.A. or one or both continents.