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neighbor

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Neighbor means one who lives someone or something, or refers to any fellow human being. (noun)

An example of a neighbor is the person next door.
An example of a neighbor is someone who cooks food for a struggling friend.

Neighbor means being near another. (adjective)

An example of neighbor used as an adjective is neighbor state which means a bordering state.

Neighbor means to live by or be near. (verb)

An example of to neighbor is for the border of New York to touch the border of New Jersey.

See neighbor in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

a person who lives near another
a person, country, or thing situated near another
a fellow human being: love thy neighbor
any person: used as a term of direct address

adjective

nearby; adjacent

transitive verb

to live or be situated near (someone or something)
Rare to bring near or into close association with

intransitive verb

to live or be situated nearby
to have friendly relations; associate on friendly terms (with)

Brit. sp. neighbour

See neighbor in American Heritage Dictionary 4

(nāˈbər)

noun

One who lives near or next to another.
A person, place, or thing adjacent to or located near another.
A fellow human.
Used as a form of familiar address.

verb neigh·bored, neigh·bor·ing, neigh·bors

verb, transitive

To lie close to or border directly on.

verb, intransitive

To live or be situated close by.

adjective

Situated or living near another: a neighbor state.

Word History: Loving one's neighbor as oneself would be much easier, or perhaps much more difficult, if the word neighbor had kept to its etymological meaning. The source of our word, the assumed West Germanic form *nāhgabūr, was a compound of the words *nēhwiz, “near,” and *būram, “dweller, especially a farmer.” A neighbor, then, was a near dweller. Nēahgebūr, the Old English descendant of this West Germanic word, and its descendant in Middle English, neighebor, and our Modern English neighbor have all retained the literal notion, even though one can now have many neighbors whom one does not know, a situation that would have been highly unlikely in earlier times. The extension of this word to mean “fellow” is probably attributable to the Christian concern with the treatment of one's fellow humans, as in the passage in Matthew 19:19 that urges love of one's neighbor.

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