Why Doesn’t 'Veterans Day' Have an Apostrophe?

In the United States, we’re celebrating Veterans Day next week. It’s a holiday commemorating the end of World War I in 1918, but the name of the holiday brings up a common question: Do we need an apostrophe in the word “Veterans”?

The short answer is no, because the U.S. government gave the holiday its official name, and they chose to write it without the apostrophe; but today, we’ll explore why it’s grammatically correct with or without an apostrophe.

3 ways to write ‘Veterans Day’: two right, one wrong

Since many people are confused, you’ve probably seen "Veterans Day" written three different ways:

•  The right way: Veterans Day

•  Another potentially right way: Veterans’ Day

•  The wrong way: Veteran’s Day

Avoid the singular possessive

Let’s address the wrong way first. If you put the apostrophe before the final S in “Veterans,” you’re making the singular word “Veteran” possessive. You’re saying it is the day of a single veteran or a day to celebrate a single veteran, and that’s clearly wrong. It’s a day for all veterans.

“Veterans Day” isn’t the only place you see this problem. You often see things like “writer's strike,” “homeowner's association” and “farmer's market” written with an apostrophe-S at the end, and they’re wrong. All these phrases refer to groups—writers, homeowners, and farmers—they are not describing the strike, association, or market of a single person.

You have to be careful, though, because sometime it is correct to use the singular with an apostrophe-S.

For example, the Guardian Style Guide points out that you do use the singular form for phrases such as “writer’s cramp” and “butcher’s knife’s.” It’s the cramp of one writer and the knife of one butcher. When in doubt, check a good dictionary; it will often give you the correct spelling of these kinds of phrases.

An apostrophe makes a plural possessive

But it gets trickier with the remaining two choices. If you put an apostrophe at the end of the word “Veterans,” you’re making the plural possessive. You’re saying it is the day of the Veterans—the day that belongs to the Veterans—and that’s true, at least at some level.

Further, the possessive case is also called the...

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