a surrounding or nearby region
"the plane crashed in the vicinity of Asheville"
"it is a rugged locality"
"he always blames someone else in the immediate neighborhood"
"I will drop in on you the next time I am in this neck of the woods"
people living near one another
"it is a friendly neighborhood"
"my neighborhood voted for Bush"
the approximate amount of something (usually used prepositionally as in `in the region of')
"it was going to take in the region of two or three months to finish the job"
"the price is in the neighborhood of $100"
an area within a city or town that has some distinctive features (especially one forming a community)
"an ethnic neighborhood"
The quality of being a neighbor, of living nearby, next to each-other; proximity.
"The two families developed such a strong bond that they knew their neighborhood was more than just the distance between their houses."
In plain English: A neighborhood is the area where you live and hang out with people nearby.
"The new community center will serve the entire neighborhood."
Usage: Use "neighborhood" primarily to refer to a specific geographic area where people live near one another, rather than the abstract quality of being close. When describing general proximity without specifying a location, use words like "proximity" or "nearness" instead.
The word neighborhood comes from Middle English, formed by combining "neighbor" with the suffix "-hood." This construction originally meant a group of neighbors or their collective dwelling place.