Everyday Vocabulary (Holiday or Vacation?)
Here's a moment you've probably had. You're reading a job ad, a school website, or a message from someone on the other side of the Atlantic, and an ordinary word stops you cold. They're "on vacation." They've put it "on their résumé." The bin men are "out collecting the trash." You know roughly what they mean, but the label is wrong for your side of the water, and for a second you feel oddly on the back foot.
Nobody's born knowing which word sticks where. These aren't spelling rules or grammar — they're just the everyday words that school, work, and ordinary life reach for, and the UK and the US happen to keep different ones on the shelf. The good news is the list is short and you can use it straight away. Both columns are perfectly correct; they're two labels for the same idea. Use the left one when you're writing for a British reader, the right one for an American one.
The everyday pairs
| UK term | US term | In use |
|---|---|---|
| holiday | vacation | UK: We're going on holiday in August. / US: We're going on vacation in August. (UK still says vacation for a university break or a long leave from a post; everyday time off is a holiday.) |
| autumn | fall | UK: The new term starts in autumn. / US: Classes start in the fall. |
| CV | résumé | UK: Please attach your CV. / US: Please attach your résumé. (Register and length differ: a UK CV can run long and detailed; a US résumé is usually one or two tight pages. If a US employer asks for a "CV," they may want the fuller academic version — match the word they used.) |
| term | semester | UK: Exams are at the end of term. / US: Exams are at the end of the semester. (Some US schools use quarter or trimester too, but semester is the default.) |
| timetable | schedule | UK: Check the timetable for Room 4. / US: Check the schedule for Room 4. (US also uses schedule for work shifts and appointments.) |
| post | UK: I'll put it in the post tomorrow. / US: I'll put it in the mail tomorrow. (Email is shared. Online, both sides now post a photo — that meaning has quietly gone global.) | |
| mobile | cell | UK: Ring me on my mobile. / US: Call me on my cell. (Fuller forms mobile phone and cell phone suit more formal writing.) |
| queue | line | UK: There was a long queue at the till. / US: There was a long line at the register. (Verb: UK queue up; US line up or stand in line.) |
| rubbish | trash | UK: Take the rubbish out. / US: Take out the trash. (Garbage is common in the US too. Rubbish meaning "nonsense" works on both sides.) |
| mum | mom | UK: My mum picked me up. / US: My mom picked me up. (Both are the affectionate everyday word; the formal, shared term is mother.) |
| football | soccer | UK: He plays football every Saturday. / US: He plays soccer every Saturday. (In the US, football means the game with the oval ball and helmets — a genuine source of confusion.) |
| ground floor | first floor | UK: The office is on the ground floor. / US: The office is on the first floor. (Both mean the level at street height. What a Brit calls the first floor is the American second floor.) |
A short watch-out-for
Most of the time nobody's keeping score. Ask for the toilet in New York or the restroom in Manchester and you'll be understood and pointed in the right direction. The point of matching the local word isn't correctness — it's the reader's ear. A pupil who writes "my fall semester schedule" for a British teacher sounds like they've been bingeing American campus telly, and an adult applying to a US firm with "I'll be on holiday next week" will be understood but reads slightly off. Pick one side and stay with it, and the small moment of friction goes away.
Two of the pairs above deserve an extra glance, because the same words can point at different things. Football is the obvious one — say it to an American and they may picture an entirely different sport. And ground floor / first floor is worth double-checking whenever a floor number actually matters: in a hotel, a lift, or a "meet me on the first floor" text. Between British and American speakers, a floor can quietly shift by one. When in doubt, say "the floor at street level" and let nobody guess.
That's really all there is to it. You're not learning a new language — just choosing the right label for the room you're standing in.
Where to Go Next
- E0 — Everyday Vocabulary: Start Here — orientation for the whole cluster
- E1–E4 — the sibling word-lists — the rest of the everyday vocabulary domain
- Pillar 8 Hub — the vocabulary hub
Spelling swaps (colour / color), apostrophes, hyphens, capital letters and verb tenses each live in their own pillars — this page is just for the words that change outright.