Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton greets her daughter Chelsea Clinton as she arrives to accept the nomination on the fourth and final night at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, July 28, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

"I get it that some people just don't know what to make of me. So let me tell you. The family I'm from, well no one had their name on big buildings," Clinton said in a reference to Trump. She said her family were builders of a better life and a better future for their children, using whatever tools they had and "whatever God gave them."

Clinton said it would be her "primary mission" to create more opportunities and more good jobs with rising wages, and to confront stark choices in battling determined enemies and "threats and turbulence" around the world and at home.

"America is once again at a moment of reckoning. Powerful forces are threatening to pull us apart. Bonds of trust and respect are fraying," said Clinton, a former secretary of state. "No wonder people are anxious and looking for reassurance - looking for steady leadership."

Clinton, who is vying to be the first woman elected US president, called her nomination "a milestone" and said she was happy for grandmothers and little girls and "everyone in between."

"When any barrier falls in America, it clears the way for everyone," the 68-year-old Clinton said in a speech that capped the four-day nominating convention.