Anime are cartoons. However, what many western anime fans consider anime tend to focus on the presence of eastern culture and nuances. The Japanese use the term "anime" as a general term for any kind of animation.

The word anime, is derived from two possible situations, of which there's conflicting views on which its actually derived from and doesn't ultimately matter.
Originally, the term "Anime" was applied to all forms of animation western or otherwise in Japan.
Ofcourse that's not the only word for that.  カートゥーン is also used.

Animation -> A lot of words in Japanese languages (english, french, spanish, martian!) are taken and  massacred and made shorter. IE Pa-Ss-Kon. is personal computer.
or
dessin animé -> French word for cartoon (I think I got the french word right, I'm not french).

What it means in english can be applied however the people at websters dictionary wants it too.  Since ofcourse it's a new word in english. It's people adopting a word in english from another language that was adopted from another language hooray!

Yup. Agree. All Japanese are cartoons. Some have mature content but cartoon nonetheless. It's like saying that Archer is not a cartoon. It is but obviously aimed at adults.

Though it's a style that came from the west... and that is found in many cartoons.

and this is pretty ironic, since JRPGs, just like Anime, got their whole motiff from western sources.

While Anime was Disney cartoons, in particular scoorge McDuck....

With RPGs it was Ultima and Wizardry.

Yeah pretty much, it's neat how things like this connect isn't it?

Kinda like with....you can add an acidic based solution to water but you can't add water to an acidic based solution. or.......

You can make electricity with an acidic reaction (a.k.a. a battery) but you can't make and acidic reaction with electricity

Yeah, it more or less illustrates perfectly just how culture currents can alter things.  

It's interesting though how this stuff inspired Japan and yet... the US moved away from it's own cultural styles.

I imagine it's that change that makes handhelds still popular in Japan and less so in the west.  

Turnbased just translates better to handheld.

Samurai Jack?  Or do you consider that anime despite being Western animation?  Or do you consider it also humor-based?  (It's been a while since I watched much of it but I think I'd have to disagree there.) 

Anime is japanese for cartoons.
I say desenhos animados, I'm portuguese.

Spanish people may refer to it has Diseños.


Get over it with all the japanese nerdism for fucks sake. Just because it is different art and audience doesn't mean that forrest gump and transformers 3 aren't both pieces of media under the same category: movies. Same for fucking cartoons, doesn't matter how dark, childish or the fucking language the characters speak. Dragon Ball and Power Puff Girls are cartoons. Fact. Period.