Ways to say it
| Chinese | Romanization (Wiktionary) |
|---|---|
| 美國 / 美国 | Měiguó |
| 美- | Měi- |
美國 / 美国 is the normal Chinese name for the United States, used in speech, news and everyday writing where English speakers would say USA or America.
What does it mean word for word?
美 is short for America and 國 or 国 means country, so the name reads as the America country.
Which one should you use?
美國 / 美国 is the full name of the country. 美- is the short form used as the first part of longer words, much like English uses American in front of a noun.
Is it said differently in some regions?
Mainland China and Singapore write 美国 with simplified characters. Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau write 美國 with traditional characters.
How do you pronounce it?
In Mandarin the name is Měiguó, with a falling and rising third tone on the first syllable and a rising second tone on the second.
What mistakes should you avoid?
Do not mix the two scripts in one text. Choose 美國 for traditional writing or 美国 for simplified writing and keep to it.
Did you know?
- In casual internet slang, some Chinese users refer to the USA as 美帝, which is a shorthand for 'American Imperialism'.
- The full name of the United States was once written as 亞美理駕洲大合眾國, a long phonetic transcription that mimics the sound of the English words.
- Chinese speakers often use the prefix 美- to create combined nouns, such as 美金 for 'US dollars', where 金 means 'gold'.
Example sentences for Chinese are not verified yet.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “usa” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries 美國, CC BY-SA 4.0.
