FreeScrabbleDictionary

neighbour

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
15
Words With Friends
18
Letters
9
Pronunciation
/ˈneɪbə/
See all 2 pronunciations
/ˈneɪbə/ · /ˈneɪbɚ/

Definition of neighbour

7 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (UK)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.”
    “1660, Hugh Peters, The Tales and Jests of Mr. Hugh Peters, reprinted 1807, page 10, Being at his own house in the country, when a great tempest of wind rose, he takes an occasion to visit a neighbour by him, and being somewhat merily disposed, quoth he Oh neighbour, did you not see what a wind there was the other day?”
    “Undine at length shrank back with an unrecognizing face; but her movement made her opera-glass slip to the floor, and her neighbour bent down and picked it up.”
    “Neighbours enact their substantive noun when there′s a neighbour′s sickness in the night; as friends do theirs, the cindered and the green times through.”
See all 7 definitions

noun

  1. (UK)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.”
    “1660, Hugh Peters, The Tales and Jests of Mr. Hugh Peters, reprinted 1807, page 10, Being at his own house in the country, when a great tempest of wind rose, he takes an occasion to visit a neighbour by him, and being somewhat merily disposed, quoth he Oh neighbour, did you not see what a wind there was the other day?”
    “Undine at length shrank back with an unrecognizing face; but her movement made her opera-glass slip to the floor, and her neighbour bent down and picked it up.”
    “Neighbours enact their substantive noun when there′s a neighbour′s sickness in the night; as friends do theirs, the cindered and the green times through.”
  2. (UK)One who is near in sympathy or confidence.
    “Buckingham / No more shall be the neighbour to my counsel.”
  3. (UK)A fellow human being.
    “1982, Bible (NKJV), Leviticus 19:18, You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
  4. (UK)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.”

verb

  1. (UK, transitive)To be adjacent to
    “Though France neighbours Germany, its culture is significantly different.”
    “Theſe grow at the South end of the Iland, and on the leiſurely aſcending hills that neighbour the ſhore.”
    “[…] who neighbourest the rock-born rill, / Thou Hermes!”
    “OUR GOD, we bless Thee that Thy rainbow is on the cloud. […] Such things are too high. We can not attain unto them. But no matter. We catch the many lights the rainbow wears. Thou neighborest with our cloud.”
  2. (UK, figuratively, intransitive)To be similar to, to be almost the same as.
    “That sort of talk is neighbouring on treason.”
  3. (UK)To associate intimately with; to be close to.
    “[…] the barbarous Scythyan, […] / Shall bee as well neighbour’d, pittyed and relieued / As thou my ſometime daughter.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle English neyghebour, neighebor, neighbour, neihebur, from Old English nēahġebūr (“neighbour”), from Proto-West Germanic *nāhwagabūrō, from Proto-Germanic *nēhwagabūrô (“neighbour”, literally “near-dweller”), equivalent to nigh (“near”) + bower (“farmer”). Cognate…

See full etymology

From Middle English neyghebour, neighebor, neighbour, neihebur, from Old English nēahġebūr (“neighbour”), from Proto-West Germanic *nāhwagabūrō, from Proto-Germanic *nēhwagabūrô (“neighbour”, literally “near-dweller”), equivalent to nigh (“near”) + bower (“farmer”). Cognate with Scots nichbour (“neighbour”), Saterland Frisian Noaber (“neighbour”), Dutch nabuur (“neighbour”), German Low German Naber (“neighbour”), German Nachbar (“neighbour”), Danish nabo (“neighbour”), Norwegian nabo (“neighbour”), Icelandic nábúi (“neighbour”), Finnish naapuri (“neighbour”), Estonian naaber (“neighbour”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English prome (“neighbour”), borrowed from Old French proeme, proime, proisme (“neighbour”) (<< Latin proximus (“nearest, next”).

Words you can make from neighbour

200+ playable · top: NEIGHBOR (14 pts)

Best play neighbor 14 points

7-letter words

5 words

6-letter words

25 words

5-letter words

49 words

4-letter words

63 words

3-letter words

57 words

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