US/UK Englishes

Vocabulary Differences

Different words for the same thing
US Cart, UK Trolley
US Diaper, UK Nappy
US Eggplant, UK Aubergine
US Zucchini, UK Courgette
US Fall, UK Autumn
US Line, UK Queue
US Trunk, UK Boot
US Vacation, UK Holiday (see below)

Commonly confused words
US Sweater, UK Jumper
US Rubber, UK Condom (Be careful in the USA with "Have you got a rubber?"!!!)
US Eraser, UK Rubber
US Pants, UK Trousers
US Panties, UK Pants
US Chips, UK Crisps
US French Fries*, UK Chips

*Out of criticism to the European position against the war of Irak, patriots in the USA started calling French fries, Freedom fries.

More: Jeremy Smith's The American-British, British-American Dictionary: Explanation of Differences : vocabulary

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Read this entry from The English-to-American Dictionary
holiday n. I've always wondered about this word and was enlightened by one of my trustworthy contributors. A holiday for a person in the UK is any time taken off work. For Americans, a vacation is time taken off specifically for yourself and a holiday is time that everyone gets off and they're paid for (Christmas, New Year, Easter, etc.). What Americans call holidays, we call public holidays. In actual fact we call all of them except Christmas and Easter "bank holidays". Scotland and England have bank holidays on different dates, presumably to stop the Scots and English meeting up and fighting in popular seaside towns.