Difference between America and USA

Key difference: The term America or Americas actually refers to the lands in the Western Hemisphere. These lands, or New World, actually comprises of the continents of North America and South America. The United States of America is a country located in North America. It is made up of 50 states and a federal district. It is also referred to as the United States, USA, U.S.A., US or U.S.

In actuality, the terms America and USA refer to two completely different things. They are however related and this relationship is actually the cause of the confusion.

The term America or Americas actually refers to the lands in the Western Hemisphere. They are often also known as the New World. These lands, or New World, actually comprises of the continents of North America and South America. The Americas make up about 28.4% of the world’s land area. The entire length of the Americas from North to South is approximately 14,000 km (8,699 mi).

Christopher Columbus is generally attributed as discovering America; however the Americas were already populated with an indigenous population, and had actually been already visited and settled by the Norse explorer Leif Ericson. However, the Norse colonization was later abandoned, while Columbus’ was successful and eventually resulted in a permanent contact with Europe.

The United States of America is a country located in North America. It is made up of 50 states and a federal district. It is also referred to as the United States, USA, U.S.A., US or U.S. The United States of America is a federal republic and is the third largest country by land area and population in the world. It has a total area of 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and a population of around 315 million people.

The country was first settled by the English in the 1600s. It remained a British colony until July 4, 1776, when the 13 colonies declared independence from Great Britain by signing the Declaration of Independence, following the American Revolutionary War. The United States of America is currently the world's largest national economy and is considered as a superpower in the modern world.

The term Americas, i.e. in plural and even the singular America, generally refers to continents of North and South America. However, the singular ‘America’ is also commonly used as a short name for the United States of America. When used in a sentence, without a clarifying context, the term, America will more often than not refer to the United States of America.

For example:

I live in America.

I work in America.

I am planning to go to America for the summer.

In these instances, the speaker most probably is referring to the United States. In fact, it can be safe to assume that the general public is usually referring to the United States of America, when using the term, America.

Image Courtesy: inece.org, factoryoutletstores.info

Most Searched in Food and Drink Top 10 Most Searched Differences
Most Searched in Education and References Most Searched in Business and Finance
Microsoft Surface RT vs iPad
Polymorphism vs Overloading
Many vs Several
Sales vs Revenue

Comments

“The country was first settled by the English in the 1600s.” WRONG.

United statian, united states or usa is a country, america is not a country.. America is a continent A canadian is a american A mexican is a american A brazilian is a american A haitian is a american A jamaican is american A colombian is a american A united statian is a american

Add new comment

Plain text

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.