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

Having watched his fraternity brothers gamble on their sports expertise, he was pumped to bet on his Oscars knowledge with his fellow film nerds.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026

Does he socialise much with the mysterious moss fraternity?

From BBC • Mar. 8, 2026

The office had a very “SoHo loft feeling, everything’s very white,” said Conor Parks, a 21-year-old Columbia junior and member of the fraternity.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 6, 2026

The fraternity attracts the children of the very wealthy, including Evan Whitesell, the stepson of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 6, 2026

All through the fall of 1933, Ernest Lawrence had been on a soaring high, his fame growing within the physics fraternity and among the public.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

Related Words

• camaraderie
• guild
• sorority