Is "America" a continent or a country?

Simply,

America refers to the United States, in nearly all casual conversation. American means someone from the USA.

North America can mean the USA and Canada. North American can mean someone from either country, though Canadian is typically used for the latter.

Central America means Mexico and surrounding areas, though Mexico can also counted as a North American country. The people there are called Mexican.

There is also South America. From here is South American, unless denoted by a more particular region (e.g. Brazilian).

The Americas, plural, refers to all those continents together.

This is what I know of the distinctions. Insofar as country vers continent goes, I take "country" as synonymous with "nation" and descriptive of a group of people sharing a culture and government. Whereas "continent" is more geographic of the land mass, or used in reference to a conglomeration of countries (e.g. Europe or Asia are continents).

 

I find it easier to simply refer to the country as US. There is only one country in the world that has "The United States..." in it's name . Crude, but effective.

 

I tend to try to say US or USA instead of America when referring to the country, otherwise it sounds a bit like the US is the only country in the Americas of any significance.

 

There is America as in the United States of America, which is a country.

Then there is American as in North or South America which are both continents. Central America is found on both North and South America with most of it in North America I believe.

 

Well... if people didn't refer to those from the US as American, then would we be United Statesian?

People from China, India, Eastern Russia and such are all Asian... but no one calls them outright Asian.

The us is such a melting pot that people of varying ancestry are called African American for instance (being from a different background than some one living in africa). This is a sometimes necessary evil although someone born in the US is just as "american" as the next person.

And from a technical standpoint, peoole from Mexico and Honduras and such are north american.

 

I consider America to be two continents: South and North America.

Hence, I will never refer to the United States as ''America''. I find it a bit presumptuous. Technically, I'm an ''American'' as much as the citizens from the States, as would be a citizen from Argentina or Mexico.

For referring to the citizens, it's a bit more tricky since there isn't a word for it. In French, we're trying to use ''États-Unien'', but many think that it sounds weird. I would still prefer to use that, though. In English, that would translate to United Statian, which looks weird as well, but if it started being used, I'm sure we would see no problem with it.

 

America is short for the United States of America in colloquial English. The Americas is a landmass. North America and South America are continents.

 

P.S. I don't want to be called by my state's name. Massachusettsian? Dafuuuuuu? I suppose it's better than being called a Masshole like the rest of the us calls us.

 

Continent.

 

I propose a compromise. Those who are citizens or nationals (not wanting to forget our brothers of American Samoa) of the United States of America are to be called 'Mericans. Everyone from the tip of Canada to the tip of Chile (and Caribbean) can be called Americans. 'Mericans are also Americans.

Usage examples:

"Aw shit, the 'Mericans bombed us again."

"I'm going to visit America."
"Oh cool, where?"
"Just New York."
"Oh, you're going to visit 'Merica!"

You don't like "Bay Stater?"

 

In defense of calling people from the United States, "American":

-Very few nations have a name that cannot be easily turned into a demonym. E.g. Mexico --> Mexican, Vietnam --> Vietnamese, Scotland --> Scottish, but United States of America --> United Statesian?
-Cf. United Arab Emirates, another country with no easy demonym, but the one that has been chosen is "Emirati", thus deriving from the third part of the name, the most salient part.
-In the name "United States of America", "America" is the most salient part of the name. There are other countries that are "united states" (e.g. the official name of Mexico is "Estados Unidos Mexicanos"), but there is only one country with the word "America" in its name.
-There is more cause to refer to someone from the USA than there is to refer to someone from the large continental landmass of the Western Hemisphere, the Americas. Typically, terms like "North American", "South American", or "Latin American" suffice.
-Therefore, "American" is best used to refer to someone from the USA.

 

It's 2 continents and a country.

 

Two continents one country...

Sorry couldn't resist.

 

America is not a continent in the English language. The two continents are North America and South America.

There's not much else to it.

 

The United States of America is a country.

North America is a continent including 23 countries. Those directly connected from Canada to Panama, which also include Greenland and the Caribbean and two dependant territories on the coast of Newfoundland named St. Pierre and Miquelon

South America is a continent consisting of countries found in the southern portion of the Western Hemisphere ranging from Venezuela to Chile that includes two dependant territories in the Falkland Islands (United Kingdom) and French Guinea (France).

 

Flint schools suck.

 

continent obviously....

US and "the States" are countries.

 

That's because you assume the worst in everybody. Maybe it's possible that peoples aren't actually as terrible as you think and just shortened "United States of America" to "America." Surely you can see the logic in that. America isn't even the name of two continents. They are North and South America. Nobody says "America" to refer to both continents. I don't think anyone else really cares about such petty issues.

I don't see why this topic had to be made so passive aggressively. Your agenda was fairly obvious from the start so you should have just stated that you find it arrogant instead of feigning ignorance.

 

^^ probably got bored of the Tumblr echo chamber so decided to troll this forum instead.