Meaning of behaviour in English

behaviour

noun

UK (US behavior)

/bɪˈheɪ.vjər/ us

/bɪˈheɪ.vjɚ/

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B1 [ U ]

the way that someone behaves:

Her behaviour is often appalling.

He was notorious for his violent and threatening behaviour.

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

someone's behaviour

behaviourUK Your behaviour today was unacceptable.
conductHe was dismissed for inappropriate conduct.
comportmentThis scandal raises new questions about the president's comportment.
demeanourUK He has a calm demeanour, even under pressure.
mannerHis manner can be condescending.
waysGrandma had some funny ways.

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[ C or U ] biology, chemistry, physics, psychology specialized

the way that a person, an animal, a substance, etc. behaves in a particular situation or under particular conditions:

His research involved the study of instinctive behaviour in birds.

These behaviours can be observed among many children who have lost a parent or other loved one.

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He has always demanded the highest standards of behaviour from his children.
The stupid behaviour of one pupil has brought discredit on the whole school.
His casual behaviour was wholly inappropriate for such a formal occasion.
After a while her behaviour really began to irritate me.
I'd just met his parents for the first time so I was on my best behaviour.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Behaving, interacting and behaviour

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Conditions and characteristics

Animal (non-human) behaviour

(Definition of behaviour from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

behaviour | Business English

behaviour

noun [ U ]

UK ( US behavior)

/bɪˈheɪvjər/ us

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the way that someone or something behaves in a particular situation:

A boss's behaviour must be consistent both with the law and with broad public policy goals.

the behaviour of sb/sth In the last few years, the behavior of the stock market suggests that investors are cautious.

Good corporate behaviour makes good commercial sense.

See also

buying behaviour
customer behaviour
organizational behaviour

(Definition of behaviour from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of behaviour

behaviour

The screening system permitted a population approach for quantification of changes in seed population thermal behaviour in relation to dormancy loss.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Its qualitative behaviour is described in terms of its self-similar solutions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Indeed, people's social and psychological attributes shape their behaviour but, in many ways, behaviour is only partially predictable.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Parents' own health risk behaviours were correlated with those reported for their children.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Distinguishing between these two alternative hypotheses has important implications for the behaviour of political parties.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In this context heterogeneity may be induced by a combination of host behaviour, host genetics and past or current experience of infection.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Although no formal study of parasitoid behaviour was made, the search pattern of the parasitoids in this experiment appeared to be random.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There remained the question of what sort of behaviour the model should produce.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Although these terms can be removed by a coordinate transformation to obtain the normal form in (38), it is important to consider their asymptotic behaviour.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Perhaps some of the rules of social behaviour are instilled in us by a form of teaching which we have all now forgotten.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The surprising behaviour of the surfaces of constant total pressure occurs entirely in the boundary layer.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The third category includes culturally based value systems about appropriate behaviour concerning animals and the environment.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There is a need to understand the fate and behaviour of hydrocarbon contaminants in these extreme systems.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In the ratings made for the subjects when aged from 13 to 16, delinquent behaviour and ' other problems ' were weakly associated with these symptoms.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Their theoretical model outlines a causal link between various cognitive and social processes and the resulting behaviour.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with behaviour

behaviour

These are words often used in combination with behaviour.

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aberrant behaviour

In both groups over-eating was associated with more aberrant behaviour.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

actual behaviour

Many of the studies examined only beliefs and attitudes, not actual behaviour.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

adaptive behaviour

Why the need to exercise adaptive behaviour?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all collocations with behaviour

What is the pronunciation of behaviour?

Translations of behaviour

in Chinese (Traditional)

行為，舉止, （在某种環境或條件下的）特定行為…

Meaning of behaviour in English

behaviour | Business English

Examples of behaviour

Collocations with behaviour

behaviour

Translations of behaviour

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