Dictionary.com

behaviour

[ bih-heyv-yer ]
/ bɪˈheɪv yər /

noun Chiefly British.

behavior.

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usage note for behaviour

See -or1.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021

Example sentences from the Web for behaviour

  • Of course, I knew that many of them must have two behaviours, and that now they were on their good behaviour.

    Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood|George MacDonald

  • Jerry, if you don't like any of my behaviours, why were you nice to me?

    Cinderella Jane|Marjorie Benton Cooke

  • I will teach the children their behaviours; and I will be like a jack-an-apes also, to burn the knight with my taber.

    The Merry Wives of Windsor|William Shakespeare

British Dictionary definitions for behaviour

behaviour

US behavior

/ (bɪˈheɪvjə) /

noun

manner of behaving or conducting oneself
on one's best behaviour behaving with careful good manners
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
the action, reaction, or functioning of a system, under normal or specified circumstances

Derived forms of behaviour

behavioural or US behavioral, adjective

Word Origin for behaviour

C15: from behave; influenced in form by Middle English havior, from Old French havoir, from Latin habēre to have
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012