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holiday

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A day on which a festival, religious event, or national celebration is traditionally observed.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

hahluhday

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈhɑlədeɪ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A day on which a festival, religious event, or national celebration is traditionally observed.

  2. A day declared free from work by the state or government.

  3. chiefly UKAustralia

    A period of one or more days taken off work for leisure and often travel; often plural.

  4. us

    The holiday season or Christmas season, especially when paired with a year.

  5. A gap in coverage, e.g. of paint on a surface, or sonar imagery.

  6. chiefly UKAustralia

    A period during which pupils do not attend their school; often plural; rarely used for students at university (usually: vacation).

verb

  1. intransitive

    To take a period of time away from work or study.

  2. britishintransitive

    To spend a period of time in recreational travel.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A day on which a festival, religious event, or national celebration is traditionally observed.

Used this way, holiday is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.

Emotional tone
Positive
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Positive and appreciative
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Religion/spirituality
  • Historical writing

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use holiday

  • “No mail is delivered on federal holidays.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Holiday

holiday seasonsummer holiday

Other combinations

holiday innbank holidaypublic holidaylegal holidayholiday resortholiday pay

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • holiday resortnounCompound term

    A hotel located in a resort area.

  • holiday seasonnounCompound term

    A time when many people take holidays.

  • half-holidaynounCompound term

    A day on which half is free from work or duty.

  • high holidaynounCompound term

    Jewish holy days observed with particular solemnity.

  • legal holidaynounCompound term

    Authorized by law and limiting work or official business.

  • national holidaynounCompound term

    Authorized by law and limiting work or official business.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: day on which a festival or religious event

vacation

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.