holiday
Syllables: hol·i·dayUK/ˈhɒlɪˌdeɪ//ˈhɑləˌdeɪ/
holiday noun: a day on which a religious event or secular celebration is traditionally observed.
Noun
holiday (plural holidays)
- A day on which a religious event or secular celebration is traditionally observed.
- Near-synonyms: holy day, feast day, festival (feast day sense)
- Today is a Wiccan holiday!
- A day declared free from work by the state or government.
- Synonyms:
- bank holiday, national holiday, day off, off day
- A period of one or more days taken off work for leisure and often travel; often plural.
- How much holiday are you allowed?
- No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or[…]. And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46
- Synonyms:
- leave, time off, vacation, annual leave, break, day off, getaway, leave of absence, pause, recess
- A period during which pupils do not attend their school; often plural; rarely used for students at university (usually: vacation).
- I want to take a French course this summer holiday.
- Synonyms:
- vacation
- A period during which, by agreement, the usual payments are not made.
- a mortgage payment holiday
- A gap in coverage, e.g. of paint on a surface, or sonar imagery.
- Synonyms:
- lacuna
Verb
holiday (third-person singular simple present holidays, present participle holidaying, simple past and past participle holidayed)
- To take a period of time away from work or study.
- To spend a period of time in recreational travel.
Proper noun capitalized: Holiday
Holiday
- A surname.
- The holiday season or Christmas season, especially when paired with a year.
- Holiday 2014
- A census-designated place in Pasco County, Florida, United States, named after Holiday Drive, a road.
- A community in the township of Zorra, Oxford County, Ontario, Canada.
holiday meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
holiday in Hindi
- day on which a festival, religious event, or national celebration is traditionally observed
- अवकाश avkāś, छुट्टी chuṭṭī, ईद īd
- day declared free from work by the government
- छुट्टी chuṭṭī, अवकाश avkāś, छुट्टी का दिन chuṭṭī kā din
- period of one or more days taken off work for leisure and often travel
- छुट्टी chuṭṭī, अवकाश avkāś, छुट्टी का दिन chuṭṭī kā din
- period during which pupils do not attend school
- अवकाश avkāś, छुट्टी chuṭṭī
holiday in Tamil
- day on which a festival, religious event, or national celebration is traditionally observed
- விடுமுறை viṭumuṟai
- day declared free from work by the government
- விடுமுறை viṭumuṟai, விடுப்பு viṭuppu
- period of one or more days taken off work for leisure and often travel
- விடுமுறை viṭumuṟai, விடுப்பு viṭuppu
- period during which pupils do not attend school
- விடுமுறை viṭumuṟai, விடுப்பு viṭuppu
holiday in Marathi
- holiday
- सुट्टी suṭṭī
holiday in Urdu
- day on which a festival, religious event, or national celebration is traditionally observed
- عِید 'īd, چُھٹّی chuṭṭī
- day declared free from work by the government
- تَعْطِیل ta'tīl, چُھٹّی chuṭṭī
- period of one or more days taken off work for leisure and often travel
- تَعْطِیل ta'tīl, چُھٹّی chuṭṭī
More languagesFewer languages
- holiday in Bengali
- ছুটির দিন chuṭir din
- holiday in Telugu
- సెలవు selavu
- holiday in Malayalam
- അവധി avadhi, അവധിക്കാലം avadhikkālaṁ
- holiday in Kannada
- ರಜೆ raje
- holiday in Punjabi
- ਤਿਹਾਰ tihār, چھٹی chuṭṭī
- holiday in Gujarati
- તહેવાર tahevār, ઉત્સવ utsav
- holiday in Odia
- ଉତ୍ସବ utsaba
- holiday in Sanskrit
- पर्वन् párvan
- holiday in Assamese
- ছুটি suti
- holiday in Nepali
- बिदा bidā
- holiday in Pashto
- عيد id, تعطيل ta'tíl
- holiday in Arabic
- عِيد ʕīd, عُطْلَة ʕuṭla, عُطْل ʕuṭl, إِجَازَة ʔijāza
- holiday in Malay
- hari perayaan, cuti
- holiday in Indonesian
- liburan
- holiday in Thai
- วันหยุด wan-yùt
- holiday in Vietnamese
- ngày lễ, nghỉ lễ, ngày nghỉ, nghỉ mát
- holiday in Myanmar
- အလုပ်ပိတ်ရက် a.luppitrak
Examples of holiday in a sentence
- Monday, January 18, was the holiday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.2005, Bill Clinton, My Life, volume II, New York: Vintage Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 5:
- On a dreamer’s holiday.[…]Make it a long vacation.1949 August 11, “A Dreamer’s Holiday”, performed by Perry Como, The Fontaine Sisters, and The Mitchell Ayres Orchestra:
Synonyms of holiday
11 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- annual leave
- break
- getaway
- leave of absence
- pause
- recess
- time away
- vac
- vaca
- vacay
- lacuna
Forms of holiday
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | holidays |
| alternative form | holyday |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | holidays |
| present participle | holidaying |
| past participle | holidayed |
| past | holidayed |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | Holliday |
Origin of holiday
From Middle English halyday, holyday, halidei, haliȝdei, from Old English hāliġdæġ (“holy day, Sabbath”), equivalent to holy + day. Compare West Frisian hjeldei (“holiday”), Danish helligdag (“holiday”), Norwegian helligdag (“holiday”), Swedish helgdag (“holiday, feast”).
English surname, variant of Holliday.
Words formed from holiday
- alcoholiday
- all holiday
- antiholiday
- bank holiday
- blindman's holiday
- blind man's holiday
- busman's holiday
- drug holiday
- enjoy your holiday
- go on holiday
- half-holiday
- Hallmark holiday
- happy holidays
- high days and holidays
- High Holidays
- holidate
- holiday camp
- holidayer
- holiday fic
- holidayfic
- holiday heart
- holiday heart syndrome
- holiday home
- holidayism
- holiday let
- holiday-maker
- holidaymaker
- holidaymaking
- holiday ownership
- holiday package
- holiday park
- holiday pay
- holiday season
- holiday speeches
- holiday time
- holiday tree
- holiday village
- holigay
- legal holiday
- national holiday
- nonholiday
- package holiday
- postholiday
- preholiday
- public holiday
- Roman holiday
- school holiday
- stat holiday
- statutory holiday
- summer holiday
- unholiday
- winter holiday
Phrases with holiday
- holiday fics
- holiday lets
- holiday camps
- holiday homes
- holiday parks
- holiday times
- holiday trees
- goes on holiday
- gone on holiday
- holiday seasons
- went on holiday
- going on holiday
3 more phrasesFewer phrases
Questions about holiday
- What does holiday mean?
- Holiday means a day on which a religious event or secular celebration is traditionally observed.
- What is holiday in Hindi?
- Holiday in Hindi is अवकाश (avkāś), छुट्टी (chuṭṭī), ईद (īd). See Holiday meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use holiday in a sentence?
- Monday, January 18, was the holiday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.
- What part of speech is holiday?
- Holiday can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce holiday?
- Holiday is pronounced /ˈhɒlɪˌdeɪ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of holiday?
- The plural of holiday is holidays.
Words near holiday in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: holiday (page history and authors); Holiday (page history and authors); सुट्टी (Marathi) (page history and authors); ರಜೆ (Kannada) (page history and authors); چھٹی (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ଉତ୍ସବ (Odia) (page history and authors); पर्वन् (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); ছুটি (Assamese) (page history and authors); बिदा (Nepali) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-holiday.ogg.
Cite this entry: “holiday.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/holiday. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.