American English
Region	United States
Native speakers	247.7 million, all varieties of English in the U.S. (2024)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic North Sea Germanic Anglo–Frisian Anglic English North American English American English
Early forms	Old English Middle English Early Modern English Modern English 17th century British English 18th century British English
Dialects	Southern African-American Western New England Western Pennsylvania North-Central New York City Midland Philadelphia Northern American Indian Pennsylvania Dutch Cajun Chicano Miami New York Latino Californian
Writing system	Latin (English alphabet) Unified English Braille[2]
Official status
Official language in	United States[a]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
IETF	en-US[3][4]
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American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English,^[c] is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States.^[5] English is the most widely spoken language in the U.S. and is an official language in 32 of the 50 U.S. states. It is the common language used in government, education, and commerce in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and in all U.S. territories except Puerto Rico.^[6] Since the late 20th century, American English has become the most influential form of English worldwide.^{[7][8][9][10][11][12]}

Varieties of American English include many patterns of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and particularly spelling that are unified nationwide but distinct from other forms of English around the world.^[13] Any American or Canadian accent perceived as lacking noticeably local, ethnic, or cultural markers is known in linguistics as General American;^[7] it covers a fairly uniform accent continuum native to certain regions of the U.S. but especially associated with broadcast mass media and highly educated speech. However, historical and present linguistic evidence does not support the notion of there being one single mainstream American accent.^[14][15] The sound of American English continues to evolve, with some local accents disappearing, but several larger regional accents having emerged in the 20th century.^[16]

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