Un-american

adj, slang

adj, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Contrary to the principles, institutions or interests of the United States; anti-American.

    "Besides, how can you talk about church politics? It would certainly be anti-Catholic and might easily become un-American."

  2. 2
    Incivil, immoral. US, informal
  3. 3
    Unrelated to America or the U.S.; untypical of U.S. mores or habits; non-American, not American.

    "[About British filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock:] It’s not often addressed in criticism, but Hitchcock was un-American enough to dwell on the uneasiness or the unreliability of heroes."

Adjective
  1. 1
    considered contrary to the best interests of the United States wordnet

Example

More examples

"Un-American activity cannot be prevented or routed out by employing un-American methods; to preserve freedom we must use the tools that freedom provides."

Etymology

From un- + American.

Related phrases

un-Americanness

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.