Behavior

How to spell behavior

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce behavior

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does behavior mean?

1. nounThe way a person or animal acts or conducts themselves, especially toward others or in a given situation.

Behavior in a sentence

• The teacher praised the calm behavior of the entire class during the fire drill.

• Managers tracked customer behavior on the website to improve the checkout process.

Where does behavior come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grew out of the verb 'behave', which English assembled in the late 1400s from the prefix 'be-' (used here as an intensifier) and 'have', in the older sense of 'to hold or bear oneself'. The idea was that a person could 'have' or carry themselves in a particular manner, so 'behave' meant to conduct oneself properly. The noun form was shaped on the pattern of words ending in '-iour' or '-ior', and was probably influenced by the now-obsolete word 'havior' (meaning possession or demeanour), which itself echoed Old French 'avoir'. The American spelling 'behavior' drops the 'u' that British and Canadian writers keep in 'behaviour', following Noah Webster's nineteenth-century reforms that trimmed the French-style '-our' endings down to '-or'. Because the word is really 'be' plus 'have' plus an ending, the unexpected spelling trap is that the original 'have' is almost completely hidden inside the modern form.

How the word is built

• be- (intensive prefix)
• have (from Old English habban, to hold/conduct oneself)
• -ior (noun ending, on the model of words like savior)

British and American spelling

Behavior is the American spelling. British English spells it behaviour.