neighbourly
/ˈneɪbɚˌli/adjective
neighbourly is an adjective meaning “Showing the qualities of a friendly and helpful neighbour” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled N-E-I-G-H-B-O-U-R-L-Y and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 8 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does neighbourly mean?
adjective
- 1
CanadaUKShowing the qualities of a friendly and helpful neighbour.
She's so neighbourly that she always holds a welcoming party for new residents.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce neighbourly?
- US /ˈneɪbɚˌli/
Neighbourly has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Neøn-neighbourly.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of neighbourly
- more neighbourly comparative
- most neighbourly superlative
- neighborly US
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is neighbourly?
Neighbourly appears about once in every 8 million words in written English, the 82,325th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Neighbourly in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense friendly:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | nachbarlich |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does neighbourly come from?
From neighbour + -ly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).