fraternity

American  

[fruh-tur-ni-tee] / frəˈtɜr nɪ ti /

noun

plural

fraternities

1. a local or national organization of male students, primarily for social purposes, usually with secret initiation and rites and a name composed of two or three Greek letters.

2. a group of persons associated by or as if by ties of brotherhood.

3. any group or class of persons having common purposes, interests, etc..

   the medical fraternity.

4. an organization of laymen for religious or charitable purposes; sodality.

5. the quality of being brotherly; brotherhood.

   liberty, equality, and fraternity.

6. the relation of a brother or between brothers.

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fraternity British  

/ frəˈtɜːnɪtɪ /

noun

1. Gender-neutral form: community.  a body of people united in interests, aims, etc

   the teaching fraternity

2. brotherhood

3. a secret society joined by male students, usually functioning as a social club

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Other Word Forms

• interfraternity adjective
• nonfraternity noun

Etymology

Origin of fraternity

1300–50; Middle English fraternite < Latin frāternitās. See fraternal, -ity

Example Sentences

When he died, in October 2006, snooker's close-knit fraternity lost one of its most popular brothers.

From BBC

“Thanks to your self-sacrificing and devoted struggle, the militant fraternity and friendship and invincible alliance between our country and Russia grow firmer,” he said, according to state media.

From The Wall Street Journal

Their work demonstrated the nations' "militant fraternity", Putin said in the message received by Pyongyang last week.

From Barron's

We’d heard he was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity.

From The Wall Street Journal

He belonged to a fraternity—half cult, half mainstream—that extended from Richard Brautigan to Thomas Pynchon, with Kurt Vonnegut in between.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• camaraderie
• guild
• sorority