A Dictionary of American English on Historical Principles was a dictionary of terms coined in the United States that was published in four volumes from 1938 to 1944. Intended to pick up where the Oxford English Dictionary left off, it was begun in 1925 by William A. Craigie . The first fascicle appeared in 1936 under the editorship of Craigie and James R. Hulbert .

The work was one of the sources for the Random House Dictionary of the English Language. A similar, but unrelated modern work, the Dictionary of American Regional English, is presently being compiled.