Word.ws English Dictionary

neighbourship

neighbourship noun: the state or condition of being neighbours; a connection or relationship between people or things which is based simply on living close geographically.

Noun

neighbourship (plural neighbourships)

  1. The state or condition of being neighbours; a connection or relationship between people or things which is based simply on living close geographically.
    • He called to his mind and said: "Surely the Ant had in former days his dwelling underneath this tree, and was busy in hoarding a store of provision: now I will lay my wants before her, and, in the name of good neighbourship, and with an appeal to her generosity, beg some small relief.1890, W. A. Clouston, Flowers from a Persian Garden and Other Papers
    • The travelling artist they knew, the pedlar, the insurance agent, and the cockney beanfeaster; but the stranger who desired permanent neighbourship with them they knew not; him they treated as a lunatic at large.1907, William J. Dawson, The Quest of the Simple Life
  2. A relationship between people and / or things which is based simply on being of a similar class.
    • Their conveyance is no handsome carriage, but a rickety dog-cart, unmistakably betraying its neighbourship to the carts and ploughs of some rural farmyard.1912, May Sinclair, The Three Bront

Forms of neighbourship

pluralneighbourships
alternative formneighborship

Origin of neighbourship

From Northern Middle English nychtbourschype, neȝeborusipe, equivalent to neighbour + -ship. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Noaberskup (“neighbourship”), West Frisian neibuorskip (“neighbourship”), Dutch nabuurschap (“neighbourship”), German Low German Naberskupp, Naverschop (“neighbourhood; neighbourship”), German Nachbarschaft (“neighbourship; neighborhood”), Danish naboskab (“neighbourship”), Swedish naboskap (“neighbourship”).

Questions about neighbourship

What does neighbourship mean?
Neighbourship means the state or condition of being neighbours; a connection or relationship between people or things which is based simply on living close geographically.
What part of speech is neighbourship?
Neighbourship is a noun.
What is the plural of neighbourship?
The plural of neighbourship is neighbourships.

Words near neighbourship in the dictionary

  1. neighbourlily
  2. neighbourliness
  3. neighbourly
  4. Neighbourne
  5. neighbours
  6. neighbourship
  7. neighbourships
  8. neighed
  9. neigher
  10. neighers
  11. neighing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: neighbourship (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “neighbourship.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/neighbourship. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.