brethren

[breth -rin]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR brethren ON THESAURUS.COM

plural noun

fellow members.

Archaic. brothers.

Synonym study

1, 2. See brother.

brother

[bruhth -er or for 9, bruhth -ur]

noun, plural brothers, (Archaic) brethren.

a male offspring having both parents in common with another offspring; a male sibling.

Also called half brother. a male offspring having only one parent in common with another offspring.

a stepbrother.

a male numbered among the same kinship group, nationality, ethnicity, profession, etc., as another; an associate; a fellow member, fellow countryman, fellow man, etc.: a fraternity brother.

Ecclesiastical.

(often initial capital letter)a male numbered among the lay members of a religious organization that has a priesthood.
a man who devotes himself to the duties of a religious order without taking holy orders, or while preparing for holy orders.

brothers, all members of a particular racial or ethnic group, or of the human race in general: All men are brothers.

Slang. fellow; buddy: Brother, can you spare a dime?

Informal. a term used to refer to or address a fellow black man; soul brother.

interjection

Slang. (used to express disappointment, disgust, or surprise).

Origin of brother

before 1000; Middle English; Old English brōthor; cognate with Dutch broeder, German Bruder, Old Norse brōthir, Gothic brothar, Sanskrit bhrātṛ, Greek phrā́tēr, Latin frāter, Old Irish bráthair, OCS bratrŭ

Related formsbroth·er·less, adjectivebroth·er·like, adjective

Synonym study

1. Brothers, brethren are plurals of brother. Brothers are kinsmen, sons of the same parents: My mother lives with my brothers. Brethren, now archaic in the foregoing sense, is used of male members of a congregation or of a fraternal organization: The brethren will meet at the church.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for brethren

relative, twin, relation, kin

Examples from the Web for brethren

Contemporary Examples of brethren

It was an open secret, and one that discomfited several of his brethren.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Levels With Us on Why She’s Not Retiring
Jeff Greenfield
September 25, 2014
He is now sure to become a folk hero among his brethren on high steel.
Hero or Criminal? James Brady, the WTC Ironworker Who Jumped Off the Building
Michael Daly
March 25, 2014
Cursed be Canaan;  A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
The Story of Noah's Ark From the Bible’s Book of Genesis
The Daily Beast
March 24, 2014
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
The Story of Noah's Ark From the Bible’s Book of Genesis
The Daily Beast
March 24, 2014
But when the school holds a ceremony honoring the soldiers who killed her Arab brethren, she suffers clear cognitive dissonance.
What American Jews Can Learn From ‘Dove’s Cry’
Sigal Samuel
November 18, 2013

Historical Examples of brethren

Inasmuch as you did it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it unto me.
Harriet, The Moses of Her People
Sarah H. Bradford
They were sick-and so were the purest of their brethren—with the plague of sin.
The New Adam and Eve (From "Mosses From An Old Manse")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Yet we have just seen that the Greeks of old were too self-contained for their Italian brethren.
The Dramatic Values in Plautus
Wilton Wallace Blancke
When our brethren departed, we could not tear our aged roots out of the soil.
Old News
Nathaniel Hawthorne
If John has not yet acted like his brethren, it is only because he is not yet old enough!
Cameos from English History, from Rollo to Edward II
Charlotte Mary Yonge

British Dictionary definitions for brethren

brethren

pl n

archaic a plural of brother

fellow members of a religion, sect, society, etc

brother

noun plural brothers or archaic except when referring to fellow members of a religion, sect, society, etc brethren

a male person having the same parents as another person

short for half-brother, stepbrother

a male person belonging to the same group, profession, nationality, trade union, etc, as another or others; fellow member
(as modifier)brother workers

comrade; friend: used as a form of address

Christianity

a member of a male religious order who undertakes work for the order without actually being in holy orders
a lay member of a male religious order

Related adjective: fraternal

interjection

slang an exclamation of amazement, disgust, surprise, disappointment, etc

Word Origin for brother

Old English brōthor; related to Old Norse brōthir, Old High German bruoder, Latin frāter, Greek phratēr, Sanskrit bhrātar

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for brethren

alternative plural of brother (q.v.); predominant c.1200-1600s, but surviving now only in religious usage.

brother

Old English broþor, from Proto-Germanic *brothar (cf. Old Norse broðir, Danish broder, Old Frisian brother, Dutch broeder, German Bruder, Gothic bróþar), from PIE root *bhrater (cf. Sanskrit bhrátár-, Old Persian brata, Greek phratér, Latin frater, Old Irish brathir, Welsh brawd, Lithuanian broterelis, Old Prussian brati, Old Church Slavonic bratru, Czech bratr "brother").

A highly stable word across the Indo-European languages. In the few cases where other words provide the sense, it is where the cognate of brother had been applied widely to "member of a fraternity," or where there was need to distinguish "son of the same mother" and "son of the same father." E.g. Greek adelphos, probably originally an adjective with frater and meaning, specifically, "brother of the womb" or "brother by blood;" and Spanish hermano "brother," from Latin germanus "full brother." As a familiar term of address from one man to another, it is attested from 1912 in U.S. slang; the specific use among blacks is recorded from 1973.