the American dream

noun phrase

variants or the American Dream

: a happy way of living that is thought of by many Americans as something that can be achieved by anyone in the U.S. especially by working hard and becoming successful

With good jobs, a nice house, two children, and plenty of money, they believed they were living the American dream.

Examples of the American dream in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Eder Flag, a heritage business with an almost entirely immigrant workforce, is featured in a powerful National Geographic documentary about the American dream. — Ginger Crichton, Midwest Living, 26 June 2026

By the early 1950s, the American dream gets entangled with free-market capitalism and Cold War consumer politics. — Cari Shane, USA Today, 25 June 2026

On his Instagram, happy photos of his family living the American dream are interspersed with violent admonitions about the forces lurking in his own community and seeking to destroy him. — Christopher Hooks, Harpers Magazine, 23 June 2026

Funnily enough, Yeezy’s life now is kind of the American dream. — Jack Crosbie, Rolling Stone, 17 June 2026

Rhymes for the American dream

• abeam
• airstream
• bloodstream
• daydream
• downstream
• esteem
• extreme
• grapheme
• hakim
• hornbeam
• lexeme
• mainstream