Hot: The black wire is the hot wire, which provides a 120 VAC current source.

Neutral: The white wire is called the neutral wire. It provides the return path for
the current provided by the hot wire. The neutral wire is connected to an earth
ground.

Ground: The bare wire is called the ground wire. Like the neutral wire, the
ground wire is also connected to an earth ground. However, the neutral and ground
wires serve two distinct purposes.
The neutral wire forms a part of the live circuit along with the hot wire. In contrast,
the ground wire is connected to any metal parts in an appliance such as a
microwave oven or coffee pot. This is a safety feature, in case the hot or neutral
wires somehow come in contact with metal parts.
Connecting the metal parts to earth ground eliminates the shock hazard in the event
of a short circuit.

However, in an AC circuit, there is no positive and no negative. You do not actually have an electron flow,
but a difference in electrical potential. You still have to have a complete circuit, so they were originally
called hot and return, however, some time back the return was renamed neutral because in wiring you can
treat them all the same (look in a circuit break box and you will see all the white wires going to the same
bus bar regardless of what phase the hot came from). The neutral, or return is not hot and will not shock
you if you touch them and ground since the neutral is connected to ground somewhere in the circuit.

Earth point is the point connected locally to ground, i.e. earthed locally at the consumer premises
while Neutral point is a point that is connected to ground (earthed) as well but faraway at some point
of the power company equipment (e.g. the star point of the secondary stepdown transformer feeding
the consumer premises). See the picture that I prepared to illustrate the answer. Hence neutral at
consumer premises is ground point at some other company's equipment.
The role of Neutral point (Neutral wire) is to close the circuit and carry the consumer load current
(return current) back to the transformer point) while the earth point (earth wire at consumer
premises) shall carry no current in normal situations. The earth point (earth wire) is used to bond the
metallic chassis of consumer equipment that is isolated from live wires. Hence, the earth wire is
used to ensure safety of equipment and personnel in two cases:
-The earth wire will carry (short) currents in case of chassis of the equipment becomes electrified ,
i.e. a bare live conductor touches the metallic chassis. This short current will trip some circuit breaker
in the way immediately.
- The earth wire will carry (Leakage) small currents due to insulation deterioration, humidity and
carbon deposit on the insulator. In this case a special breaker called ELCB (Earth Leakage Circuit
Breaker) or RCCB (Residual Current Circuit Breaker) that is calibrated to trip at small currents (of the
order of 6-30 mA for residual purposes and 300mA for industrial purposes). Not all electric codes
enforces the uses of ELCB's or RCCB's.
Hope you found this answer of value. Thanks. @AlDmour.