neighborhood

[ney-ber-hood]

noun

1. the area or region around or near some place or thing; vicinity.

   the kids of the neighborhood; located in the neighborhood of Jackson and Vine streets.

2. a district or locality, often with reference to its character or inhabitants.

   a fashionable neighborhood; to move to a nicer neighborhood.

   Synonyms: vicinity, locale, area, community

3. a number of persons living near one another or in a particular locality.

   The whole neighborhood was there.

4. neighborly feeling or conduct.

5. nearness; proximity.

   to sense the neighborhood of trouble.

6. Mathematics.,  an open set that contains a given point.

Word History and Origins

Origin of neighborhood¹

First recorded in 1400–50, neighborhood is from the late Middle English word neighborehode. See neighbor, -hood

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. in the neighborhood of, approximately; nearly; about.

   She looks to be in the neighborhood of 70.

Example Sentences

The conflict has left tens of thousands dead and entire neighborhoods in ruins.

Read more on Salon

In the early 1900s, the neighborhood, then called J-Flats, was where a sizable group of Japanese immigrants settled.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

This is the sort of anti-bully cosplay I’ve come to see often in recent months: Kids I know strutting around with their chests puffed out like roosters, imitating a neighborhood bully who insults immigrants.

Read more on Salon

The quinceanera dress shops in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood are usually bustling enterprises, reflecting the buoyant mood of Latino families eyeing a brighter future.

Read more on Barron's

Fueling the anxiety: a raft of recent California laws and bills that make it easier to build duplexes and apartment buildings in single-family neighborhoods like Altadena.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• area 
• block 
• district 
• parish 
• part 
• precinct 
• region 
• section 
• street 
• suburb 
• territory 
• zone