A citizen of the United States Of America.

A polemical term used to describe people from the United States of America. For historic and cultural reasons, people from the States refer to themselves as "Americans", whereas in all of Latin America, the word "américano" refers to anyone from the Americas. Therefore Latin Americans refer to people from the States as "estadounidenses" (United Statians) rather than "americanos".

Due to Americans obliviousness of this issue of transcendence in Latin America, a Chilean group has even written a song that describes American mentality when thinking of Latin America. It is entitled: “Latin America is a town south of the United States.”

Many Latin Americans would like to change the English term "American" to "United Statian" and the word "American" to refer of all people from the Americas (North, South and Central). It is an issue heatedly discussed in many forums on the internet.

Some thing fucking idiots say, usually people who don’t want to offend anyone.

A word used to describe people from the United States without confusing them with people from South America.Also used when the word American cannot be thought of.

A term used by inhabitants of Central and South America (and more recently, guilt-ridden American liberals toeing the PC line and people who think that Americans are completely unaware of the outside world) to refer to the citizens of the USA.

Usually, it's followed by the dubious explanation that "America is a continent, not a country" (never mind that much of the world counts it as two and the exact definition of "continent" is fuzzy), the charge that "they're just ignorant" (never mind that, again, Americans count it as 2, and contrary to popular belief, they ARE taught basic Geography in school), and/or cries of "they have no right to the name" (never mind that the USA gained its independence a solid 30 years before any other country on either continent, 50 years or more before most, not to mention that French Guyana and number of outlying islands are STILL under European control, or the fact that the USA is the only country that actually has "America" in its name).

The fact remains that in most languages and in most countries, "America" without any qualifiers refers to the USA, not the continent(s) or whatever shit stain country these people are so ashamed to admit that they're from that they feel the need to co-opt someone else's denonym and get mad at them for using it first. I've never seen a Canadian do it, probably because Canada is awesome, and even if they did, Canadians aren't douchey enough to insist that their way is the only way.

A term created by British and British Commonwealth citizens to describe residents of the United States of America who identify themselves as "Americans". Its use is to differentiate that country's citizen from citizens of other countries located on the North and South American continents who could feasibility also be called Americans.

It is vital to note that Americans from the United States of America do not recognize this distinction, and only refer to themselves as Americans. This makes any other distinction by any other country irrelevant.

A term that morons use, who are unable to distinguish between the Americas and the United States of America.