Australia Day

noun

Aus·​tra·​lia Day ȯ-ˈstrāl-yə- How to pronounce Australia Day (audio)
ä-,
ə-
: a national holiday in Australia commemorating the landing of the British at Sydney Cove in 1788 and observed on the Monday of or next following Jan. 26

Examples of Australia Day in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web In those chambers, the colony invented the public holiday of Australia Day in 1994. Maggie Knight-Williams, refinery29.com, 22 Jan. 2024 Members of the Hewitt family pose on the forecourt during Australia Day Live 2024 at the Sydney Opera House on January 26, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. Cara Tabachnick, CBS News, 4 July 2024 In January, on the eve of Australia Day, an antipodean version of the Fourth of July, a bronze statue of Cook that had stood in Melbourne for more than a century was sawed off at the ankles. Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 1 Apr. 2024 Like a good friend, three weeks later, Mr. Quintero showed up for Mr. Walters at his birthday/Australia Day open house in January where about 80 guests snacked on Vegemite, Tim Tams and assorted Aussie lollies at Mr. Walter’s Chelsea apartment decked out with Australian flags. Rosalie R. Radomsky, New York Times, 5 May 2023 There are growing public calls to change the date of Australia Day, which is known to many Indigenous people as Invasion Day and Survival Day, because of the disastrous impacts on First Nations people of British colonists taking their land without a treaty. Rod McGuirk, The Christian Science Monitor, 26 Jan. 2023 Human rights organisation Amnesty International Australia spearheaded a 'Change the Date' campaign until 2018, which involved a petition proposing to move the date of Australia Day to a more 'appropriate date' that isn't associated with the violence of colonialism. Alicia Vrajlal, refinery29.com, 25 Jan. 2023 Many argue that Australia Day should be changed to a date that isn’t painful for indigenous Australians. Alice Uribe, WSJ, 3 Feb. 2022 And Happy Australia Day to all of our friends down under, who take this day to reflect on the diverse history of their beautiful country. Aj Willingham, CNN, 23 Jan. 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'Australia Day.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1907, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of Australia Day was in 1907

Dictionary Entries Near Australia Day

Cite this Entry

“Australia Day.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Australia%20Day. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.

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