behavioral
adjective
Simple meaning
Related to how a person or animal acts, especially in response to a situation.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
bihhayvyeruhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
bɪˈheɪvjɚəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
American spelling
Of or relating to behavior.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: (American spelling) Of or relating to behavior.
Used this way, behavioral is a word tied to one variety of English that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. Most speakers understand it but seldom reach for it.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Regional
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Uncommon in everyday speech
Usage note
Mainly used in American English, so it may read as unusual elsewhere.
Nearby words
- behavioural , used mainly in Regional English
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use behavioral
- “Behavioral sciences.”adjective
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.