All-american Definition & Meaning

American

British

Etymology

Examples

all-American American [awl-uh-mer-i-kuhn] / ˌɔl əˈmɛr ɪ kən /

adjective

1. representing the entire United States.

2. composed exclusively of American members or elements.

3. selected as the best in the United States, as in a sport.

   the all-American college football team of 1983.

noun

1. an all-American player or performer.

all-American British

adjective

1. representative of the whole of the United States

2. composed exclusively of American members

3. (of a person) typically American

   the company looks for all-American clean-cut college students

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of all-American

An Americanism dating back to 1885–90

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Just as his own immigrant forebears assimilated and their children were average, upwardly mobile, all-American citizens, so too are the more recent immigrants.

From Salon

The film is a brilliant, madcap, offensive, all-American, seat-gripping crowdpleaser because Chalamet and his director are the way they are: motivated to a fault, happy to pad their film with all the right elements and disperse them when they’re no longer needed.

From Salon

The most highly coveted point guard in the transfer portal, Dent arrived on campus with the pedigree of an All-American honorable mention who was expected to immediately elevate his new team.

From Los Angeles Times

Henry, the great poet’s alter ego, reappears in all his ambiguity and confusion, an all-American, unremarkable, yet observant “unheroic hero” in the words of Shane McCrae, who writes the Introduction to this collection.

From Los Angeles Times

For four years on the boys team, brother Nikolas Khamenia became an All-American because of his versatility.

From Los Angeles Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.