‘Holiday‘ and ‘Vacation‘ are words with similar meanings. They both describe days when you don’t go to work or school. There are differences between them!

Holiday is the British English version, while vacation is the American English version of the same meaning.

photo: Holiday

But the difference between ‘Holiday‘ and ‘Vacation‘ is that they use the word ‘holiday‘ to talk about days that are celebrated by a lot of people. They include religious holidays like Christmas Day and Easter Day and also include national holidays. An example of a national holiday for the United States is Independence Day.

Vacations often involve traveling somewhere.

There are some days when you don’t work that are neither ‘holidays‘ nor ‘vacations‘. For example, if you stay home one day just to relax, what do you call it? It’s not a general ‘holiday‘ but you’re not going anywhere so it’s not a ‘vacation‘.

The British go on holiday (on hols for short), but Americans go on vacation (shortened to vac).

A popular new word is ‘staycation‘. A ‘staycation‘ is a holiday that you spend at home.