holiday
Pluralholidays
Pluralholidays
Formsholidays, holidaying, holidayed
- 1A day set aside by law or custom for a celebration, religious festival, or national event, often with time off work.
Independence Day is a national holiday observed right across the country.
Several holidays on the calendar mark important religious festivals.
UsageAn officially recognized holiday is a public holiday or national holiday, though some people still work. Use on: shops close on holidays.
Note
The oldest meaning, and the one the spelling still hides: Old English hāliġdæġ, a "holy day" or Sabbath, built from holy plus day, with cousins in Danish and Norwegian helligdag. Feast day and holy day remain its synonyms, yet the sense now stretches to secular dates as well, as when Bill Clinton's My Life (2004) speaks of "the holiday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday."
- 2A period of one or more days taken away from work for leisure and often travel.
They booked a two-week holiday in the Lake District.
Most of the office takes their holidays in August.
UsageGo on holiday (Americans say vacation). With no article it can mean time allowed off: how much holiday do you get?
- 3A period during which pupils do not attend school, often falling between terms.
The Easter holiday gives schoolchildren about two weeks off.
Teachers prepare next year's lessons during the long summer holidays.
UsageOften plural for the whole break: the summer holidays, the school holidays.
Oppositeterm
Note
The same regional split as the leisure sense applies. Universities are the exception, though. A university's own calendar traditionally calls the break the vacation, though students themselves often say holidays.
- 4The end-of-year season that takes in Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year's Day.
Flights home to Chicago were sold out weeks before the holidays.
Retailers count on strong holiday sales every December.
Note
This use is North American, and it is almost always plural with the: where are you spending the holidays? The plural does not count several days off; it names one season that gathers several festivals. Before another noun the singular does the work, as in holiday shopping or the holiday rush. Elsewhere in English, the holidays more often means time off for leisure.
Less common meanings
- 5To spend a holiday, usually by going away somewhere for rest or pleasure.
Every summer they holiday in a small village on the Cornish coast.
Many British families holiday in Spain for its reliable summer sunshine.
UsageUsually with a place: holiday in Spain, holiday by the sea. The y stays: holidayed, holidaying.
- 6An agreed period during which the usual payments, such as on a loan or tax, are not made.
The lender agreed to a payment holiday while the borrower recovered financially.
The government introduced a tax holiday to encourage new investment.
UsageUsually the second half of a compound: a payment holiday, a tax holiday.
Similarmoratorium, suspension, deferral
Note
Finance borrows the word for a pause in what is owed rather than in work. The pause is agreed. A payment that is simply skipped without agreement is not a holiday.
- 7A gap left in coverage, such as a spot missed by paint on a surface or a blank area in sonar imagery.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English holyday, from Old English hāliġdæġ ("holy day, Sabbath"), which is simply "holy" plus "day." It is related to Danish helligdag and Swedish helgdag, both meaning "holiday."
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Holiday derives from Middle English holyday, from Old English hāliġdæġ. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English hāliġdæġ meant holy day or Sabbath. en.wiktionary.org
- The word combines the elements meaning holy and day. en.wiktionary.org
- Holiday is related to Danish helligdag and Swedish helgdag, both meaning holiday. en.wiktionary.org