If it’s AC current neutral can be live too and live can be neutral too. Isn’t it?
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First some background you probably already know: In most countries, home electrical items run on two wires. Even if you have a plug with three prongs, the electricity is just flowing through two of them. The third prong (usually called ground or earth) is just there for added safety and doesn’t normally carry any electricity.
The two wires carrying the electricity are often called the live (or hot) and the neutral wires. In a power grid, the neutral wire is literally connected to the earth somewhere (probably in many places). Since the neutral wire is connected to the earth, it has zero voltage when measured using the earth as the reference. Thus, all the voltage change is happening only on the live wire.
This does not have to be the case. If you have a portable generator and run it without connecting it to ground, then the voltage is “floating”. In this situation — where no part of the generator (or the load it is running) is connected to ground — it is not really correct to say one wire is live and the other neutral. It’s not until a ground connection is made that you really get this distinction.
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