How do Americans understand the word "international"?

I think that guy was either lying to you or stupid. Are you sure he wasn’t talking about *intranational*?

I have never met someone from the US who thinks international means anything but "from a country other than the US" or "relations between different countries." I mean honestly, I would read that as whoever said it messing with you. It's such an odd usage, but there's always the possibility that there's some regional use I'm not familiar with. I'd be surprised though.

>"Because there is a lot of states in the US, Americans generally understand 'international' as 'inter-states'" I've been an American my whole life & I've never heard anyone say anything like this. >I was shocked I would assume they were joking. we do talk about states like massive & culturally distinct areas (because they are), but no one would ever use the word "international" to describe travel between North and South Dakota.

The person you were talking to was either lying or confused, or you misunderstood. Nobody uses international that way in the US. The word for what you are describing is interstate

Nah, he just doesn't have any clue.

No. I have *never* heard anyone use the word “international” to refer to *intrastrate* or *interstate*. Because that’s not what it means. Whoever told you that has no idea what they’re talking about.

We have a word for inter-state stuff ... it's "interstate". We even have whole sections of our constitution dedicated to managing interstate stuff. We know that "international" means "between countries". He was either messing with you (because he's an asshat) or an idiot. *Interstate sales are a big part of my company's business - we ship widgets all over the US!* *International sales are a big part of my company's business - we have a lot of sales to Canada and Mexico!*

> "Because there is a lot of states in the US, Americans generally understand 'international' as 'inter-states'". No we don't. We have the same understanding of 'international' that you do.

since he's a politics major, i think he was making an "americans are stupid and uncultured" joke based on the myth that only 10% of americans have passports

As an American, that was one specific idiot.

International has never meant (nor will it ever mean) interstate. Interstate is the term for interstate lol.

>Is what he said true? No. The person you spoke with made up their own definition and assumed everyone else uses it.

While I agree with everyone here that Americans don’t use “international” to mean “interstate”, I do think there is a particular use of the word “international” that is uniquely American and perhaps not strictly accurate as per the dictionary. Americans sometimes use the word as a synonym (or euphemism) for “foreign” or “non-American”. Some examples would be “international student”, “international products”, “international foods”, or “international music”. “International” means “between nations” or “involving more than one country”, and so in my opinion this usage is not quite right - yes, two nations are involved here, but idea they are trying to communicate is “not American”. I suspect this may have come about because the word “foreign” can convey a mildly disapproving tone, and so substituting the word “international” for it could have been an attempt to convey the same meaning in a neutral tone. However it happened, this usage is now widespread and most Americans would find nothing strange about it. I may be wrong but I don’t think other English-speaking countries use “international” like this. Certainly, as a former international student myself from a country where English is spoken widely, this usage was new to me. I found [this article](https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/11/17/we-should-stop-calling-students-outside-us-international-essay) that covers this subject in more detail, in case you’re interested.

You spoke to someone who was deeply confused. Everyone in the US Ive met understands “international” the way you described it-other nations besides your home nation and/or relations between nations.

No. Just... no. There are some people who aren't quite sure if US and Canada is *really* international. Like, if you ask if someone has traveled internationally, and they say, yeah, they drove to Winnipeg or Quebec, you might nod politely but think they didn't *really* travel internationally, even if they *technically* did. But interstate travel? No. Interstate travel is interstate. International travel is international.

No, he is just a tool.

That guy might have been stupid

I feel the person you're talking to was just ignorant.

I'm going to guess that he got confused because "International" is also the name of a major brand in the farming world. They make farm equipment. Which brand you prefer and are loyal to is kind of like a political thing, an excuse to divide into tribes. Whether it's used in your state or across the state border... That comes up in conversation.

The guy was just dumb. International means of or regarding other countries. American English speakers would probably use the word “domestic” to mean any US State.

Hi, native English speaker here! That guy is an idiot. We do not say that and it does not mean that.

He was trolling

International is anything that applies to multiple nations.

I’ve never heard the term international used to describe things between US states. Interstate is the word we use for that. Either the person you were talking about was pulling your leg or there was some kind of translational error.

Maybe he confused intranational with international?

That guy is just dumb

Americans aren't aware that the entire world isn't just 50 states, tell him he's wrong.

We say inter-state for between states.

That’s… just plain stupidity I remember a guy in Wyoming who didn’t know that Washington DC was NOT in Washington state. DC is infact on the border between Maryland and Virginia which is not only not north but along the opposite coastline. It was kind of impressive how wrong he was. Also funny story from my mother in the same state and while we were staying at the exact same house we were in at the time, we had a safelite(which is a windshield replacement company) tech out to replace the windshield on our car and he was commenting about how HIS EXACT WORDS “California has got some problems with the Spanish” and “they better not come out here because we got guns”. My entire family is from California and speaking as a Californian we don’t want to go out there not because they have guns but because we don’t like them or the area that much. (I mean that in the nicest way possible everywhere has great people it’s just that I don’t jive with most Wyomingites for a number of reasons I won’t list here)

In the US, a flight from one state to another could be referred to as "domestic", "out-of-state" or "cross-country" depending on context. But never international. Everyone I know was always taught a very clear distinction between states and countries.

I wouldn't be surprised if the word 'internal' makes people think 'international' means 'within one nation,' though I've never seen someone do it

Nobody except Chris Brown has this interpretation (joking about his song called international love, which makes exactly the mistake you’re referencing). I have never heard anyone confuse this in real life not even a child.

well the people have spoken and I concur: we don't have a different meaning for "international" in the US. That said we do like to pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist or doesn't matter much of the time - e.g. the "World Series" baseball championship is just American teams, not the whole world; and most of our books, tv, and movies take place in the US, and forget to portray the fact the rest of the world even exists. And of course several other countries have a bone to pick with us about the US calling ourselves "America" and "Americans" - I hear in South America they call us "Unitos Estados" and get annoyed when we say America in reference to the country and not the continents. But yeah, "international"? we know what that means and if it refers to different "states" then we mean that in terms of Countries ("the German state", "the British state", etc), not states in the US.

I don’t understand why all the responses are telling you that they’ve never experienced something like this. Americans are known for being embarrassingly bad at geography? And I’m putting the definition of “international” under this.

When you are asked, what is your nationality, you state your country. So, international is between countries.

The person you were talking to is an idiot. Everyone I know here in the us knows international to mean “between different nations”. There is no room for disagreement. The person you were talking to is wrong. A person from New York doesn’t look at goods from Arizona and think it’s from another country. That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. States are large in the us. I could see some argument about vague concepts like being well traveled without leaving the U.S. or whatever But no one thinks international means interstate.

In the context of labour unions, international does mean other US states.

The guy you were talking to is either lying or is a humongous idiot. I’ve never heard a single American ever use “international” as “inter-state”.

He’s very very incorrect. He was either messing with you or uninformed/ignorant. He may have mixed up with words “international” and “transcontinental?”

One odd instance that immediately came to my mind is the International Building Code (IBC) which is pretty much geared to be only used in the USA. Besides that...international truly does mean between or among sovereign countries.

i'm not sure what exactly went wrong in that convo but what he said isn't true. i've never met someone who confuses "international" with "interstate", we all know it as the proper definition

The person you were talking to was an idiot.

Convincable is convincing International is between nations and not US states as they all belong to the same nation. International is between regions of the same nation

While I certainly cannot speak for all Americans, it is of my opinion that international is between nations and not merely states or provinces.

You either met a joker or an idiot

You spoke with an idiot. My husband is from New York and fully understands international as meaning different countries. I have a close friend from Florida and she is also fully aware of the true meaning of international

No. That’s utterly ridiculous. No one thinks interstate=international. Millions of people commute daily from New Jersey to New York; they don’t need passports and there is no customs. They’re not confused about it. Jaysus.

That would be intranational, which isn’t a thing. International to an American with more than 3 brain cells would be be anything outside of US-held territory. Full disclosure there are some dumb enough to count Guam and Puerto Rico in that but that’s probably just because they don’t realize those are American territories.

I (English) once met some Americans in Rome. When I said it was nice to be abroad they were surprised and said "wait, this is abroad to you?"

I have never thought of the word "international" as meaning "interstate.". Sure, there are interstate politics, agreements, and conflicts, but neither I nor any other American I have had a conversation with involving the word "international" has mistaken the term for "internal to the US." That is literally the *opposite* of the meaning of the word international, when you live in the States. >his major was politics This explains the state of politics in our country, though. It's too bad you can't see my epic facepalm from your side of the internet.

No he’s either messing with your or just an idiot

If true, America is even more fucked up than we realise

Americans understand the word "international" like you expect. It is true that we have a relatively uncommon jurisdictional arrangement where the states are fully autonomous entities. So in some ways it can end up seeming more like the EU than like a single country. But we definitely consider all the states together as a single nation. Even people at the political extremes about "states rights" or whatever still use words like "international" the way you expect in normal conversation. So I don't know what this guy's deal was.

Huh? Yeah no. Dude was either stupid or straight up lying

As a Canadian and when I listen to UEFA Champions League broadcasts, the play-by-play announcer will refer to some players as "international," because they regularly play for the national team. For example: Jude Bellingham, the English international, is playing attacking midfield.

Uhhh I've never heard it used like that. But as an Australian, I can confirm that some people from the US have weird ideas about 'international'. To many of them, it means 'outside of the USA'. I have to look at people's passports and visas for my work. Many people from the US will not consider themselves as being an international student or holding an international passport. They're an American student with an American passport. So they'll list themselves as a domestic arrival. We have to explain to them that they are traveling from one country to another country, of which they are not a citizen- so, international. It's a bit of a joke at my work, like oh, time to clean up the domestics list and take out all the lost Americans.

He's wrong

This guy is obviously very confused. He hears the word international and thinks "inner nation al= within a nation"

Nobody in the US in any great number uses 'international' to mean 'interstate'. We have the word 'interstate' for that.

He’s either wrong or lying.

The guy you were talking to is a moron.

When we go to the international terminal at the airport, it means we’re hopping on a flight out of the country. Not to another state.

Let's put it this way: if the International House of Pancakes only had restaurants in the US, we would insist that it be called the National House of Pancakes. The only time we're sketchy about it is when talking about the World Series, which just barely qualifies because there is one team in Canada.

No, the definition he gave would fit the word “nationwide” better. Nobody uses “international” in that way

the dude you were talking to was just stupid it seems. seems like he was confusing interstate with international

You either got pranked by your American friend or he's actually stupid. Nonetheless, don't take him seriously.

that is a bold face lie.. at least for 90% of the u.s. population

I don’t know any American who thinks international means interstate. Just that I don’t know them doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. But in all of my many decades, I’ve never met anyone with that interpretation.

No one here would think "international" meant within the United States. Unless he was trying to convey a sense of a majority of Americans never travelling internationally given the size of the US, he was either an idiot or messing with you.

I’m American, I always interpret it as something involving more than one country

He was full of shit, international means between separate nations.

As an American, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Under that logic, I've traveled internationally! Texas, California, Nevada, New York, Michigan. Nope. I even struggle to call Canada international, though I recognize it is. My brain is just "I can walk right over the border and be in Canada..." Like you could with another state. I'd probably get shot by border patrol first though.

Your American needs to have his head checked. Preferably in a country that has healthcare, like Botswana.

No. That’s intranational.

That person was wrong. I've never met anyone who thought that.

Pro-tip: Any time you find yourself talking to a USAmerican who says something like "Actually, our states are more like countries in their own right," go ahead and ignore everything they have to say about anything. "Interstate" means inter-states. International means between and across nations, just like it does everywhere else in the world.

That person is wrong, nobody would consider international to be another state inside the same country. It always means another country. But also, many americans dont know any geography and some barely know the state they live in so expect stupidity

contrary to what most comments say, I have actually met a couple people who do think that is what international means. Not many, but a few. Those people are idiots, and you do not need to learn any new words or anything to accommodate their idiocy. You will be able to communicate with the vast majority of americans. They will not, despite living here their whole lives.

That person was just one of the dumb ones. International is understood to actually mean, actually international. 

The statement you quote that person as making is not true. Most Americans understand “international” as meaning “between nations.” Most Americans would say that travel or relations between Indiana and Illinois is “interstate.” Now, it’s true that you’ve referred to his words as “convincible,” which does not fit in that sentence semantically. So he may have perceived your ESL status. And his major, you say, was politics — presumably “political science.” It could be that he was deliberately messing with you — and unfortunately at the same time mis-informing you as to English usage and most Americans’ understandings of the word’s meaning. He may have been engaged in “malicious correctness.” The reason has to do with federalism and how the felt meaning of “state” has changed for Americans over time. At the time the Constitution was written, one could argue that the relation of Pennsylvania to New York was like that of France and Spain. But since this is r/EnglishLearning, we needn’t go further on that front: it simply provides a possible clue to how that guy could have been messing with you: kind of a “malicious correctness” if you’ll allow the term. Edit to add: I’m a lawyer myself, although now retired, and had occasions to invoke various principles related to federalism more than once throughout my career in the courts. That guy mis-informed you as to majority U.S. English usage.

If it’s referring to travel, traveling between US states is similar to traveling internationally in Europe regarding distance and time, especially in the western states where many are larger than many European countries. You also can’t really travel internationally easily from the USA besides flying. I don’t know of any trains to Mexico and possibly some Amtrak lines can hand off to VIA in Canada. But no, no sane or sensible person would use international to mean between states.

To me, "international English" means "English from outside the U.S." Dunno what else to call it.

You talked to a fucking moron. International means INTER-NATIONAL. Within the nation would be intranational.

While some states can feel like a different country, I thought it was obvious that they are not. This guy is stupid

Americans don't use "international" that way. BUT, sometimes Americans are criticized for not traveling internationally and a common defense is to point out that the US is a large country and travel between states is similar to international travel for others (both in terms of distance traveled and in variety of culture and geography). It's possible that's what the person you were talking to meant. It's also possible they're a dummy who misunderstood what other Americans were saying about inter-state travel being like international travel.

I think your information is incorrect.

I can only imagine that what he meant to say was that interstate travel in the US can span 'international' distances. That, or as the other commenters have pointed out, he was making some kind of joke, or just lying to you?

Whoever told you that is an idiot.

International is anything that isn’t a US State… I mean I think most people would call Costa Rica or Guam international even though they technically are territories.

We never use "International" to refer to other states, though that does lead to some interesting implications to me. The US operates a lot like the EU does, where each state has it's own government (with their own Congress even), their own military, their own laws, their own cultures, etc. The US government it's solely exists to facilitate interstate relations, passing various laws that help standardize various aspects across all of the states, a federal court system to aid in settling disputes between states, and federal agencies which set out standards to streamline interstate trade and commerce. In this sense, "International" shouldn't work between EU nations, since they function almost identically to US states. The only thing I can thing of that we may refer to when saying "International" but not referring to other countries would be the truck manufacturer.

I am an American. I have lived around Americans my entire life. I have met the brightest of the bright, some dimmer ones, and everybody in between. I have never met a *single* person who thought that "international" applied to different states. It's such a common word that I can't imagine a functioning adult who speaks English (or any other European language, for that matter) not knowing what it means. It's not a word you need to be particularly intelligent or educated to know. I studied international affairs, so it's a word that comes up a lot in my everyday conversations, and I have never met a single person, regardless of educational background, who didn't know what that meant. I don't know what a charitable explanation might be, other than a brain fart. Maybe he's out there re-living this conversation in the shower.

International means between countries. Like an international flight is a flight from one country to another. And international organization is an organization that has multiple countries. The word you are looking for is”interstate” which is when something is between more than one state within the same country

No one in the US would say that unless they were stupid. Is it possible you misinterpreted them saying "different states in the US are basically different countries"?

>I was shocked, because I thought the meaning of "international" was quite clear, like France and Germany and Japan and the US and the UK. There are some Americans who use "international", when they actually mean "non-American" though

Some Americans are delusional and think their "States" are actual countries, they're not.

I think that guy was just dumb, gotta be honest. I can see why someone might *think* that it's "within the nation" but I have never come across anyone ever using it that way

He was confused. We use inter- to mean outside, intra- for inside. He probably doesn’t known the difference. He should know a state is not a country

He's an idiot.

This person must be putting you on. There is no way you grow up/live in America for much time and think “international” pertains to activities between states or their inhabitants. Americans may joke that some regions of the US may ≈feel like other countries compared to others, but no one actually refers to relations between states as “international”

This person was either messing with you or an idiot. International absolutely means outside the US to most Americans.

I have never experienced Americans using or understanding the word “international” to refer to other states.

The person you were talking with must have been incredibly stupid. Never in my entire life have I heard international used that way by any of my fellow Americans. Unless he was trolling, this was an error in his own vocabulary, not a widespread American practice.

That person just mixed up National and international People here know what international means but it might not be like that for long since many are working to defend our already under funded schools

i think he was messing with you lol no one in America thinks like that

No no no!!

Are you sure he wasn’t using American sarcasm. It’s something we do to just rake on your nerves and play dumb. I do it with people that bother me, just to piss them off. It’s fun cuz you are not getting upset at all but the person who is bugging you is getting really pissed off. Then eventually, before you give them an aneurism you stand up say, I was just joshing. I’m an American not a moron. And walk off.

This guy was lying or dumb as a rock.

Your friend was wrong he probably got confused with “National”

No that guy was a fucking moron. My average countryman though, so hard to say if Americans understand it or not, being a nation of ignorant twats has that effect.

If you are not American, what is your understanding of "international"?