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.
a group of persons associated by or as if by ties of brotherhood.
any group or class of persons having common purposes, interests, etc.: the medical fraternity.
an organization of laymen for religious or charitable purposes; sodality.
the quality of being brotherly; brotherhood: liberty, equality, and fraternity.
the relation of a brother or between brothers.
Origin of fraternity
1300–50;Middle Englishfraternite < Latinfrāternitās. See fraternal, -ity
Related formsin·ter·fra·ter·ni·ty, adjectivenon·fra·ter·ni·ty, noun,pluralnon·fra·ter·ni·ties.
early 14c., "body of men associated by common interest," from Old French fraternité (12c.), from Latin fraternitatem (nominative fraternitas) "brotherhood," from fraternus "brotherly," from frater "brother," from PIE *bhrater (see brother). Meaning "state or condition of being as brothers" is from late 15c. College Greek-letter organization sense is from 1777, first in reference to Phi Beta Kappa.
