| AAA |
abbreviation of "American Automobile Association," an association that provides travel-related discounts and services to its members. |
| ABA |
abbreviation of "American Bar Association." |
| ABC |
abbreviation of "American Broadcasting Company." |
| Abraham Lincoln |
the 16th President of the United States (1861-1865), who was Commander-in-Chief of the Union troops during the American Civil War and who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, thus bringing an end to slavery in the United States (b.1809--d.1865). |
| ACLU |
abbreviation of "American Civil Liberties Union," an organization that works to defend and preserve the civil rights of citizens in the United States. |
| ADA |
abbreviation of "American Dental Association." [1/2 definitions] |
| AFL-CIO |
abbreviation of "American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations." |
| African American |
an American who has ancestors of African descent. |
| Afro-American |
(old-fashioned) of or pertaining to American Blacks, their African heritage, or their history or culture. [2 definitions] |
| AFS |
abbreviation of "American Field Service." |
| agave |
any of the tropical American plants, such as the century plant, that are related to the amaryllis and have tall, branched clusters of flowers and leaves with spiny edges. |
| ageratum |
any of various low-growing, cultivated American plants of the aster family, with violet-blue or white flowers. |
| Alan Shepard |
U.S. astronaut, who was the first American to journey into space (b.1923--d.1998). |
| Alex Haley |
a U.S. author celebrated for his pulitzer prize-winning work of historical fiction, Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976), a publication whose subsequent television broadcast adaptation spawned a national discussion about race and race relations (b.1921--d.1992). |
| Algonquian |
a family of North American Indian languages spoken by tribes from Labrador to the Carolinas and from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky Mountains. [1/3 definitions] |
| all-American |
having only American members or American-made parts. [2/5 definitions] |
| alpaca |
a species of South American domesticated mammal, closely related to the llama, with long, soft hair. [1/4 definitions] |
| Althea Gibson |
U.S. professional tennis player, who was the first African-American woman to win all the major world singles tennis titles (b.1927--d.2003). |
| AMA |
abbreviation of "American Medical Association." |
| American |
a native of North, Central, or South America, esp. of Indian ancestry; in the United States, a Native American. [1/5 definitions] |
| American dream |
the American ideal that any man or woman may obtain material wealth, equality, freedom, and the like. |