behavior

English Online Dictionary. What means behavior‎? What does behavior mean?

English

Alternative forms

• behaviour (UK)
• behavoure, behavier, behavor, behavour (all obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English behavoure, behaver, from behaven (modern behave), with the ending apparently in imitation of havour (see 'havior). Compare Scots havings (“behavior”), from have (“to behave”). Displaced Old English ġebǣru.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /bɪˈheɪvjɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɪˈheɪvjə/
• Rhymes: -eɪvjə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: be‧ha‧vior

Noun

behavior (usually uncountable, plural behaviors) (American spelling)

1. (uncountable) Human conduct relative to social norms.
2. (countable, uncountable) The way a living creature behaves or acts generally.
3. (uncountable, informal) A state of probation about one's conduct.

4. (countable, uncountable, biology, psychology) Observable response produced by an organism.
5. (uncountable) The way a device or system operates.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

• behave

Collocations

Translations

Further reading

• "behavior" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 43.
• “behavior”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “behavior”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.