What is the difference between holiday and vacation? | English Usage | Collins Education
1
`holiday’
In British English, you refer to a period of time that you are allowed to spend away from work or school as the
holiday
or the
holidays
.
The school had undergone repairs during the
holiday
.
One day after the Christmas
holidays
I rang her up.
You refer to a period of time spent away from home enjoying yourself as a
holiday
.
He thought that Vita needed a
holiday
.
I went to Marrakesh for a
holiday
.
When you spend a long period of time like this each year, you refer to it as your
holidays
.
Where are you going for your
holidays
?
Be Careful!
You usually use a determiner or a possessive in front of
holiday
or
holidays
. Don’t say, for example, `
I went to Marrakesh for holidays
.’
If you are
on holiday
, you are spending a period of time away from work or school, or you are spending some time away from home enjoying yourself.
Remember to turn off the gas when you go
on holiday
.
In American English, a
holiday
is a single day or group of days when people do not work, often to commemorate an important event.
In British English, a day like this is called a
bank holiday
or a
public holiday
.
When Americans talk about
the holidays
, they mean the period at the end of the year that includes Christmas and the New Year; sometimes Thanksgiving (at the end of November) is also included in this.
Now that
the holidays
are over, we should take down our Christmas tree.
