neighborly
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of neighborly
Explanation
When you're neighborly, you are friendly and helpful to the people who live in your neighborhood or building. A neighborly (and backbreaking) gesture might be shoveling the snow on your neighbor's driveway. It's neighborly to say hello to people who live nearby, and it's also neighborly to organize a block party and invite everyone on your street. It's less neighborly to leave your barking dog tied up all night right outside your neighbors' bedroom window, or to have loud parties without inviting your downstairs neighbor. Neighborlike was once more commonly used than neighborly, and both come from Old English roots, neah, "near," and gebur, "dweller."
Vocabulary lists containing neighborly
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Before the removal, Adam had voluntarily offered to contribute toward Brian’s expenses as a neighborly gesture, despite believing he had no legal liability.
From MarketWatch • May 28, 2026
That’s something maybe the mayor would have to put as a moral question to the city, asking New Yorkers to do the neighborly thing: keeping all of our sidewalks and communities clean for everyone else.
From Slate • Feb. 24, 2026
“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” casts Minneapolis as progressive and neighborly, a bustling metropolis located between stereotypical Midwestern patriarchal stubbornness and a feminist future.
From Salon • Jan. 31, 2026
Minnesota is a state with a deep history of civic involvement and neighborly collaboration.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026
So after exhausting all options, I realize that I’m going to have to ask Kelton for some neighborly help.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
