April Fool’s or April Fools’

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Grammarist

The occasion celebrated on the first day of April is officially called April Fools’ Day in the United States. Each word of the title is capitalized and the fool is plural possessive. The singular fool’s is listed as a variant spelling. However, this is not standardized and the main listing seems to vary from dictionary to dictionary (i.e., whether the plural or the singular is listed as the main spelling). Actual usage seems to support this non-preference, with both spellings being used about the same frequency. We found instances where the same publication varied back and forth with the spelling. Google’s Ngram Viewer will say that the singular April Fool’s Day is more popular.

This day, which is sometimes referred to as All Fools’ Day, is a day to play pranks or practical jokes on people with the main purpose to get others to believe something that is false, then one is able to say ‘April fool!’

The day is not a national holiday for any country, but is celebrated in North America, Europe, and Australia, with its popularity still growing.

Examples

Even though moms always say you shouldn’t play with your food, we can certainly make an exception for April Fool’s Day. [Parade’s Community Table]

The 2014 April Fools’ Day prank “Star Trek” USS Enterprise flying disc is now a real product you can buy. [CNET]

No doubt all will become clear after All Fools’ Day, but the question of holding prayers before a council meeting is so overloaded with political correctness that most councillors will have trouble enough without creating more problems for themselves. [The Belfast Telegraph]