Showing results for "behaviour"

• a variation of behavior.

behaviour

American  

[bih-hayv-yer] / bɪˈheɪv jər /

noun

Chiefly British.

1. behavior.

---

behaviour British  

/ bɪˈheɪvjə /

noun

1. manner of behaving or conducting oneself

2. behaving with careful good manners

3. psychol

   1. the aggregate of all the responses made by an organism in any situation

   2. a specific response of a certain organism to a specific stimulus or group of stimuli

4. the action, reaction, or functioning of a system, under normal or specified circumstances

---

Spelling

See -or ¹.

Other Word Forms

• behavioural
  adjective

---

Etymology

Origin of behaviour

C15: from _behave ; influenced in form by Middle English havior , from Old French havoir , from Latin habēre to have

---

Explanation

Your behaviour is the way you act in various situations. Note that this word ends with "our," which is the British spelling, while the American English spelling is behavior. This discrepancy is common, and either spelling is correct. The Late Middle English word behavoure meant "to have possession," which seemingly refers to a person in control of his or her actions. If you are accused of childish behaviour, you might be acting as though you have little self-control. Scottish musician Shirley Manson once said: "A lot of celebrities just want money, fame, power, fancy cars, houses all over the world and have people bow down to them. To me, that's frightful behaviour."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

behaviour

"If a mum is acting out of character... and the unusual behaviour isn't right, it's really important that's flagged and is seen as a medical emergency," she said.

From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026

Did normalising his behaviour allow him to hide in plain sight?

From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026

Pegula: "Conchita pokes her and eggs on her behaviour."

From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026

Davide Tamburella was fired from the now-closed La Costa restaurant in May, a fortnight after a meeting with management who had a string of complaints about the chef's behaviour.

From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026

In this respect he was pre-empting Sigmund Freud’s revolutionary way of looking at the motives and behaviour of men and women.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---