To be fair, when people refer to America (as in North America) they're likely talking about just the US and Canada. (And they leave out the Canadians) When they refer to Middle or Latin America, they mean everything from Mexico to Panama (technically, they're part of North America, but they get to be called Latin America instead) and South America is just the continent and such.

Or it might be the whole "United States of America" just getting shortened to "America".

To be fair, when people refer to America (as in North America) they're likely talking about just the US and Canada. (And they leave out the Canadians) When they refer to Middle or Latin America, they mean everything from Mexico to Panama (technically, they're part of North America, but they get to be called Latin America instead) and South America is just the continent and such.

 

Or it might be the whole "United States of America" just getting shortened to "America".

 

Or my favorite kind of America.

'Merica.

~AA

I can easily see how the same logic could be applied to the Central African Republic or the nation of South Africa, though. :/

United States of America, while Canada is in America and it has united states too?

They're provinces.

Because there is no country in Africa which is so arrogant as to use the name of its continent in the name of its country.