fraternal
Americanadjective
-
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
-
of or suitable to a brother; brotherly
-
of or relating to a fraternity
-
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
- fraternalism noun
- fraternally adverb
- interfraternal adjective
- interfraternally adverb
- nonfraternal adjective
- nonfraternally adverb
- prefraternal adjective
- prefraternally adverb
- quasi-fraternal adjective
- quasi-fraternally adverb
- unfraternal adjective
- unfraternally adverb
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.
When community members aren’t arguing, the vibe is generally extremely supportive and fraternal.
From Slate • Mar. 30, 2026
French President Emmanuel Macron has offered "the full solidarity of France and our fraternal support" to Switzerland.
From BBC • Jan. 1, 2026
The sense that firefighters are retreating behind a fraternal code of silence is fueling an intense anger among Palisadians.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 19, 2025
After the two wed and have their first child, Agnes becomes pregnant with fraternal twins, a boy and a girl.
From Salon • Nov. 30, 2025
In 1924, Hermann Werner Siemens, the German eugenicist and Nazi sympathizer, proposed a twin study that advanced Galton’s proposal by meticulously separating identical twins from fraternal twins.*
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Definitions 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.
