holiday
noun
a day fixed by law or custom on which ordinary business is suspended in commemoration of some event or in honor of some person.
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holiday
1 American
[hol-i-dey]
/ ˈhɒl ɪˌdeɪ /
noun
-
holidays
plural
-
a day fixed by law or custom on which ordinary business is suspended in commemoration of some event or in honor of some person.
-
any day of exemption from work (distinguished from working day).
-
a time or period of exemption from any requirement, duty, assessment, etc..
New businesses may be granted a one-year tax holiday.
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a religious feast day; holy day, especially any of several usually commemorative holy days observed in Judaism.
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Chiefly British. Sometimes holidays. a period of cessation from work or one of recreation; vacation.
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an unintentional gap left on a plated, coated, or painted surface.
adjective
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of or relating to a festival; festive; joyous.
a holiday mood.
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suitable for a holiday.
holiday attire.
verb (used without object)
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holidays,
present (3rd person singular)
-
holidayed,
past participle, past
-
holidaying
present participle
Holiday
2
American
[hol-i-dey]
/ ˈhɒl ɪˌdeɪ /
noun
holiday
1
British
/ ˈhɒlɪˌdeɪ, -dɪ /
noun
-
(often plural)
-
US and Canadian word: vacation. a period in which a break is taken from work or studies for rest, travel, or recreation
-
( as modifier )
a holiday mood
-
-
a day on which work is suspended by law or custom, such as a religious festival, bank holiday, etc
verb
Holiday
2
British
/ ˈhɒlɪˌdeɪ /
noun
holiday
Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
holidaysimple
-
holidayssimple
-
have holidayedperfect
-
has holidayedperfect
-
am holidayingprogressive
-
are holidayingprogressive
-
is holidayingprogressive
-
have been holidayingperfect progressive
-
has been holidayingperfect progressive
Past
-
holidayedsimple
-
had holidayedperfect
-
was holidayingprogressive
-
were holidayingprogressive
-
had been holidayingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of holiday
First recorded before 950; Middle English; Old English hāligdæg; equivalent to holy + day
Explanation
A holiday celebrates a person, anniversary, religious belief or other occasion. You might observe the Indian holiday of Holi, and take a week off of work to celebrate with your family. A holiday is an occasion recognized by the state or federal government and marked on calendars, like Thanksgiving in the United States. Most holidays are celebratory and fun, and just about all of them mean no work or school. You can also take a holiday, or vacation. Holiday comes from "holy" and "day," meaning a religious festival, and the word was even pronounced that way until the sixteenth century.
Vocabulary lists containing holiday
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Easter Vocabulary
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Passover Vocabulary
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
There was a stylized poster of Che Guevara celebrating a little-known holiday on Oct.
From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2026
These ranged from coffee shops, bakeries and laundry services, to lawyers, councils and holiday parks.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Working holiday makers in rural areas will enter a ballot to stay for a second or third year, with just 5,000 visas available for the latter.
From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026
Retail gasoline rose 13 cents in the prior week, veering off its usual path of declining after the Labor Day holiday.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
Upon returning to the Very, Very Far North from his “migration” that was not at all a holiday, Major Puff was again in need of a home.
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
Just weeks after the movie opened, 21-year-old Billie Holiday recorded a version with pianist Teddy Wilson.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
Over time her work became more personal, leaning in to Afrocentric mysticism and her distinctive voice, which sidesteps gospel projection in favor of intimate and playful phrasing that recalls Billie Holiday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
Brothers Jrue, Justin and Aaron Holiday have all enjoyed long NBA careers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
A trio of friends from Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, who were camping at Cliff House Holiday Park, ended up sleeping in a cosy VW Golf on Wednesday night.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
In Lady Constance’s mind, those hard-to-get tickets to Pirates on Holiday were a well-deserved payment for her own kindness and charitable spirit.
From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood
Dumond recommends that travelers planning to head home for the holidays use Google’s flight-tracker tool to keep up with price changes.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
It runs through every ring that follows—birthdays, weddings, the births of grandchildren, holidays and ordinary family dinners where someone is forever missing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
After a break for the holidays, the Grammy winner will make her way to California in January for shows in Palm Springs and Santa Barbara.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
Clothing Coventry will reopen for school uniform requests on 14 September and said families can access uniform support throughout the year, not just during the summer holidays.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
During the Christmas holidays in 1994, she'd been hospitalized again.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
The couple, who live in Ludlow, Shropshire, have holidayed at their caravan in Tywyn for many years, with Mrs Falconer having visited the area since she was a child.
From BBC ● Jan. 2, 2024
In a video statement issued from the hospital, he appeared to be in good spirits and said he had holidayed at the Sea of Galilee without properly protecting himself from a heatwave.
From Reuters ● Jul. 16, 2023
She has since only holidayed in the UK and mainland Europe, travelling by train and bike.
From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2022
As Benedict had holidayed in the diocese, and spent at least part of his time at the priest’s former place of work with his successor, the experts said they suspect he knew about the conviction.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 20, 2022
Our entire family, dad, mum, my two brothers and I, had holidayed at their place a year earlier.
From Free from School by Rahul Alvares
She decided to leave Kyiv in June after holidaying abroad this summer and seeing people living "normal" lives.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Three people died after the rare rat-borne hantavirus spread through passengers holidaying on the MV Hondius cruise ship, sparking a global health scare.
From Barron's ● May 15, 2026
The other two Britons who died since 2023 were Jane Pressley, 62, of Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, who died in January three years ago after falling ill while holidaying on Sal the previous November.
From BBC ● Feb. 1, 2026
Many of them were reportedly holidaying at caravan camps.
From Barron's ● Jan. 16, 2026
The earliest account we have of a Lethifold was written by the wizard Flavius Belby, who was fortunate enough to survive a Lethifold attack in 1782 while holidaying in Papua New Guinea.
From "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by J.K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
