Some people, especially many American conservatives, claim that "the United States is not a democracy, it's a constitutional republic."
The problem with that statement is that it's essentially a category error. That's because "democracy" is an umbrella term that covers a variety of governmental systems, and "constitutional republic" is a slightly narrower term that's one of those systems.
In other words, the United States is a constitutional republic and a democracy, because a constitutional republic is a form of democracy.
Saying that "the US is not a democracy, it's a constitutional republic" is like saying "cheddar is not food, it's a cheese". Cheddar is both a food and a cheese, because cheeses are food.
The confusion that most of these people have is that they think that "democracy" is a synonym for "direct democracy", in other words, a form of government where every single law and statute is voted for by every single citizen, every time. Of course that's not what "democracy" means. Here, too, "direct democracy" is one form of democracy, but the latter is not a synonym for the former.
(Also, arguing that some country "is not a (direct) democracy" is likewise silly because there hasn't been a single country in existence that has ever implemented direct democracy, for rather obvious reasons. Direct democracy has only ever been implemented a couple of times, in certain very small sub-divisions of some countries with a relatively small population.)
There's also another confusion among many Americans (especially conservatives), and that's confusing the names of the two major political parties of the country with the meaning of the words that those names prominently have. In other words, they at some level think that the "Democratic Party" represents democracy, while the "Republican Party" represents republicanism. Those are just political party names, and don't really mean anything. Political parties can name themselves however they want, and that in no way implies that they are perfect examples of the political flavors that those names represent.
(This is the same reason why so many American conservatives get offended when they are told that their political views are Classical Liberalism to a T. They simply can't disassociate the term "Liberalism" from the American left, ie. "the (so-called) liberals". Just because the American left are called "liberals" does not mean that they perfectly exemplify and represent Liberalism as a political concept. And yes, indeed, American conservatives are Classical Liberals to a T. Just look up the core tenets of that political flavor.)
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