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Glite Dictionary
American Samoa

American Samoa

3.7
A group of islands that belong to the United States in the South Pacific east of Samoa
  • proper noun
  • /əˈmɛrɪkən səˈmoʊə/
translation icon : Samoa Americana
  • With a population of 57,534 people, American Samoa is a United States territory like Puerto Rico, but much smaller and further away.
  • American Samoa islands

Examples

  • I'm the President of the Football Federation of American Samoa.

    Next Goal Wins (2023)

  • This is the first goal ever for American Samoa.

  • Cancer continued to be the second most common cause of death in American Samoa in 2014.

    Academic text (2016)

  • TAVITA: Welcome to American Samoa.

    Next Goal Wins (2023)

  • Cancer continued to be the second most common cause of death in American Samoa in 2014.

  • Welcome to today's World Cup qualifying match between Tonga and American Samoa.

Synonyms

AS
vsAmerican Samoa
5 6.1

A group of islands in the South Pacific that belong to the United States

is the full descriptive phrase rather than an abbreviation
Eastern Samoa
vsAmerican Samoa
4.5

A group of islands in the Pacific that form a United States territory called American Samoa

is the general descriptive phrase rather than the official title

Surface Forms

American Samoa main

Morphology

American + Samoa

The meaning is directly compositional: the adjective 'American' specifies the connection to the United States and 'Samoa' names the islands, so together they denote the Samoan territory associated with the U.S. This national-adjective + place-name pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the intended meaning.

Etymology

American Samoa is a place name that tells a simple story: the islands called Samoa are on the American side and belong to the 'United States'. So American Samoa means the U.S. part of the Samoan islands.