neighbour.
A person living on adjacent or nearby land; a person situated adjacently or nearby; anything (of the same type of thing as the subject) in an adjacent or nearby position.
Meaning & usage
A person living on adjacent or nearby land; a person situated adjacently or nearby; anything (of the same type of thing as the subject) in an adjacent or nearby position.
My neighbour has two noisy cats.
They′re our neighbours across the street.
One who is near in sympathy or confidence.
A fellow human being.
Anything located directly adjacent to something else.
The flood fill algorithm fills an area with colour by starting at one pixel and recursively visiting its neighbours.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English neighebour, neighbour, neyghebour, from Old English nēahġebūr (“neighbour”), from Proto-West Germanic *nāhwagabūrō, from Proto-Germanic *nēhwagabūrô (“neighbour”, literally “near-dweller”), from *nēhwaz (“close, near”) + *gabūrô (“dweller”). Equivalent to nigh (“near”) + bower (“farmer”). Cognates Cognate with Scots nebour, neebour, neibour (“neighbour”), Yola nipore, nypore (“neighbour”), North Frisian Naiber, naibüür, näiber (“neighbour”), Saterland Frisian Noaber (“neighbour”), Alemannic German Naachpuur, Nochbär (“neighbour”), Central Franconian Nohber (“neighbour”), Dutch nabuur (“neighbour”), Low German Naber, Nahwer (“neighbour”), German Nachbar (“neighbour”), Luxembourgish Noper (“neighbour”), Vilamovian nokwer, nökver, nökwer (“neighbour”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish nabo (“neighbour”), Faroese nábúgvi (“neighbour”), Icelandic nábúi (“neighbour”), Manx naboo (“neighbour”), Scottish Gaelic nàbaidh (“neighbour”), Estonian naaber (“neighbour”), Finnish naapuri (“neighbour”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English prome (“neighbour”), borrowed from Old French proeme, proime, proisme (“neighbour”) (<< Latin proximus (“nearest, next”).
To be adjacent to
Though France neighbours Germany, its culture is significantly different.
To be similar to, to be almost the same as.
That sort of talk is neighbouring on treason.
To associate intimately with; to be close to.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English neighebour, neighbour, neyghebour, from Old English nēahġebūr (“neighbour”), from Proto-West Germanic *nāhwagabūrō, from Proto-Germanic *nēhwagabūrô (“neighbour”, literally “near-dweller”), from *nēhwaz (“close, near”) + *gabūrô (“dweller”). Equivalent to nigh (“near”) + bower (“farmer”). Cognates Cognate with Scots nebour, neebour, neibour (“neighbour”), Yola nipore, nypore (“neighbour”), North Frisian Naiber, naibüür, näiber (“neighbour”), Saterland Frisian Noaber (“neighbour”), Alemannic German Naachpuur, Nochbär (“neighbour”), Central Franconian Nohber (“neighbour”), Dutch nabuur (“neighbour”), Low German Naber, Nahwer (“neighbour”), German Nachbar (“neighbour”), Luxembourgish Noper (“neighbour”), Vilamovian nokwer, nökver, nökwer (“neighbour”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish nabo (“neighbour”), Faroese nábúgvi (“neighbour”), Icelandic nábúi (“neighbour”), Manx naboo (“neighbour”), Scottish Gaelic nàbaidh (“neighbour”), Estonian naaber (“neighbour”), Finnish naapuri (“neighbour”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English prome (“neighbour”), borrowed from Old French proeme, proime, proisme (“neighbour”) (<< Latin proximus (“nearest, next”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.