Asian American

American  

[ey-zhuhn-uh-mer-i-kuhn, ey-shuhn-] / ˌeɪ ʒən əˈmɛr ɪ kən, ˈeɪ ʃən- /

noun

1. a citizen or resident of the U.S. of Asian birth or descent.

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adjective

1. of or relating to Asian Americans or their culture.

2. Asian-American, occurring between the United States and Asia.

   Protectionist tariffs negatively affected the volume of Asian-American trade.

Etymology

Origin of Asian American

First recorded in 1965–70

Compare meaning

How does asian-american compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• Asian American vs. Asian

Example Sentences

"Just seeing an Asian American, her struggle with her family and expectation, there's a lot of identifiers there that we take with us," Christine says.

From BBC • Mar. 15, 2026

On a 9-2 vote, the commission backed the council expansion, with supporters saying that smaller ethnic groups, including Black and Asian American and Pacific Islander residents, would be better represented.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 28, 2026

Chinamaxxing has been a hot topic in Armond Dai’s group chats with Asian American friends.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 24, 2026

Asian American leaders on Thursday rallied their communities to speak out against the federal immigration sweeps that have largely targeted Latino neighborhoods, warning that areas frequented by Asian immigrants could be next.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 5, 2026

In March 2009, he left WHO and Harvard to become the seventeenth president of Dartmouth—the first Asian American president of any Ivy League university.

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French