Neighbour
nounA person who lives near or next to another.
How to spell neighbour
9 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce neighbour
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does neighbour mean?
- nounA person who lives near or next to another.
Neighbour in a sentence
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My neighbour is very kind.
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Our neighbour keeps the front garden beautiful.
Where does neighbour come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
The word descends from the Old English neahgebur, a compound built from neah, meaning 'near' or 'nigh', and gebur, meaning 'dweller' or 'farmer'; so a neighbour was literally the person who lives nearby. The same gebur element survives hidden in the word 'boor', which once simply meant a peasant or rustic before it took on its rude modern sense. The spelling has wandered considerably over the centuries, with medieval forms like 'neighebour' showing the unstable vowel cluster. The British and Canadian spelling keeps the French-influenced '-our' ending that became standard in Britain, where American English settled on '-or'. The silent 'gh' is a fossil of an old guttural sound that English stopped pronouncing long ago, leaving behind one of the word's chief spelling traps.
How the word is built
- neigh- (from Old English neah: near)
- -bour (from gebur: dweller, farmer)
British and American spelling
Neighbour is the British spelling. American English spells it neighbor.
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