Difference Between Neighbor and Neighbour

Neighbor vs Neighbour

The differences between “neighbor” and “neighbour” are: one is the American way of writing, and the other is the British way of writing. Americans write “neighbor” whereas British write “neighbour.”
As per the dictionary, the meaning of “neighbour” is:
“Someone who lives next to or near another person”;
“A place, a person, or a thing located near or adjacent to another”;
“A fellow human.”
What does “neighbor” mean? Well, it means the same.

They are the same words, they mean the same, they sound the same. The only difference is in the way they are spelled. “Neighbour” is the spelling used in British English while “neighbor” is used in American English.
What we need to discuss right now is why it is so? Why are they spelled differently when it is the same word? To understand this, we need to look back at the history of American English. There are many rules which have been changed in American English. American and British English have a different vocabulary; they have different phonetics, a different phonology, and slight differences in orthography and grammar. But right now we will pay attention to the spelling differences.

Why are the British and American English spellings different?
When America gained its independence from the British, they wanted to change everything. They wanted to create their own identity as a separate country. They changed many things deliberately, like the official architecture, the spellings that were used in general British English, and many more things. The people wanted to create something which was their own and not something they had adopted from anyone.

The main credit of changing the American spellings goes to Noah Webster. He wrote the first American dictionary in 1828. It was called, “An American Dictionary of the English Language.” He had written one more before called “The Compendious Dictionary” which was not a success. He was a firm believer in the fact that the spellings of the words should be more like their sounds, thus, the American spelling of “neighbor” being “neighbor” instead of “neighbour.” He had two main reasons behind it; the first was a revolutionary inclination, and the other was spelling reform.
There are many other reasons for the differences in American English and British English, such as: geographical separation, the deliberate intention of changing the culture of America through the help of language, and the different dialects that were being spoken at the time of independence.

Summary:

The only difference between “neighbour” and “neighbor” is that “neighbor” is the American spelling and “neighbour” is the British spelling.

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