fraternal
Americanadjective
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of or befitting a brother or brothers; brotherly.
-
of or being a society of men associated in brotherly union, as for mutual aid or benefit.
a fraternal order; a fraternal association.
adjective
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of or suitable to a brother; brotherly
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of or relating to a fraternity
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designating either or both of a pair of twins of the same or opposite sex that developed from two separate fertilized ova Compare identical
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fraternal
1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin frātern ( us ) fraternal (derivative of frāter brother ) + -al 1
Compare meaning
How does fraternal compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Use the adjective fraternal to mean "brotherly," the way you'd describe your fraternal relationship with your oldest friend who is like a brother to you. A fight between brothers? You could chalk it up to fraternal rivalry. Fraternal describes the relationship between brothers, but it is also used is to describe a club, society or fraternity, some brotherly group of people — usually men — with common interests. Fraternal twins, unlike identical twins, are formed from separate ova. That's why they don't look exactly alike and can be a girl and a boy, instead of two girls or two boys.
Vocabulary lists containing fraternal
Lincoln Inaugural Address (March 1861)
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Vocabulary from Vladimir Putin's Speech on Crimea
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Max in the House of Spies
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That brings us to our guest, the 2026 Subaru Trailseeker, a fraternal twin of Toyota’s bZ Woodland.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
In excerpts published by the Daily Mail, the earl claimed King Charles III told him "we'll forget her soon enough", but Buckingham Palace said in a statement that fraternal grief could "colour memory".
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
"The Moon and Earth are more like fraternal twins."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026
Even more rare is the kind of triplets Craft gave birth to, Passi said: Two of them are identical twins and the third is a fraternal twin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026
Jean was solicitous, but he was not pleading or insistent; if anything, he was fraternal and lighthearted.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
