English Dictionary
Definition behaviour in British English
behaviour
noun
What are red words?
Around 90% of spoken and written English relies on just 7,500 common words.
These words are highlighted in red and are ranked using a star system.
- One-star words are commonly used
- Two-star words are even more common
- Three-star words are the most frequently used
[uncountable]
noun
What are red words?
Around 90% of spoken and written English relies on just 7,500 common words.These words are highlighted in red and are ranked using a star system.
- One-star words are commonly used
- Two-star words are even more common
- Three-star words are the most frequently used
▪ aggressive, antisocial, bad, criminal, deviant, disruptive, insulting, threatening, unacceptable, undesirable, violent
Behaviour is usually an uncountable noun, so it is rarely used in the plural:
✗ Parents should be able to prevent their children’s crimes or bad behaviours.
✓ Parents should be able to prevent their children’s crimes or bad behaviour.
✗ The media often encourage violence and aggressive behaviours.
✓ The media often encourage violence and aggressive behaviour.
The plural form ‘behaviours’ is a specialized term used in fields such as psychology, social science, and education. This use is much less common than the uncountable use:
In this chapter, we discuss strategies for dealing with the problem behaviours of young children.
the way that someone behaves
observations of animal behaviour
governments seeking to influence voter behaviour
violent/aggressive/disruptive behaviour
a particular way of behaving
These behaviours should be discouraged.
