# neighbor

Pronunciation: US say "NAY-ber" /ˈneɪ.bɚ/; UK say "NAY-buh" /ˈneɪ.bə/

## Noun

1. A person who lives next door or close by, a person who is next to or near someone else, or anything next to or near another thing of its kind.
   - Simple: A person who lives next door or near you, or a person or thing that is right beside another.
   - _Our neighbors across the hall water our plants when we travel._
   - _During the concert, my neighbor kept checking his phone._
2. In biblical and religious language, any fellow human being, not only someone who lives nearby.
   - Simple: In the Bible and in religion, any other person, not just someone who lives near you.
   - _The sermon reminded the congregation that every stranger is a neighbor._
   - _Each night she prayed for her neighbors in every land, people she would never meet._
4. A person who is close to someone in sympathy or in trust, sharing that person's feelings or confidences.
   - Simple: A person you feel close to and trust with your secrets.

## Verb

3. To be next to something, lying alongside it or sharing a border with it.
   - Simple: To be right next to a place or thing.
   - _Several farms neighbor the national forest to the north._
   - _The hotel, which neighbors the convention center, fills up fast during trade shows._
5. To associate closely or intimately with someone, or to be close to them.
   - Simple: To spend time with people and be close to them.
   - _Out on the prairie, settlers neighbored with whoever lived within a day's ride, trading labor and news._
   - _We don't neighbor much with the new owners, but we wave when we pass._
6. To be similar to something, or almost the same as it; used with on.
   - Simple: To be very like something or almost the same as it, used with on.
   - _Remarks like these neighbor on slander, and the lawyers know it._
   - _By the end of the season, her devotion to the team was neighboring on obsession._

## Other meanings

- (proper noun) A family name with roots in the English of the Middle Ages.

## Origin

From Middle English neyghebour (also neighebor, neighbour), from Old English nēahġebūr, from Proto-Germanic *nēhwagabūrô, literally "near-dweller": the same parts as nigh ("near") + bower ("farmer"). It is related to Scots nichbour, Dutch nabuur, German Nachbar, Danish and Norwegian nabo, Icelandic nábúi, Finnish naapuri and Estonian naaber. It pushed out the Middle English word prome, which had been borrowed from Old French proeme.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/neighbor (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).