FRATERNITY

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fraternity mean? 

• FRATERNITY (noun)
  The noun FRATERNITY has 2 senses:

1. a social club for male undergraduates

2. people engaged in a particular occupation

  Familiarity information: FRATERNITY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FRATERNITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A social club for male undergraduates

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

frat; fraternity

Hypernyms ("fraternity" is a kind of...):

club; gild; guild; lodge; order; social club; society (a formal association of people with similar interests)

Meronyms (members of "fraternity"):

chapter (a local branch of some fraternity or association)

Derivation:

fraternal (of or relating to a fraternity or society of usually men)

Sense 2

Meaning:

People engaged in a particular occupation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

brotherhood; fraternity; sodality

Context example:

the medical fraternity

Hypernyms ("fraternity" is a kind of...):

class; social class; socio-economic class; stratum (people having the same social, economic, or educational status)

Meronyms (members of "fraternity"):

brother (a male person who is a fellow member (of a fraternity or religion or other group))

sodalist (a member of a sodality)

Derivation:

fraternise; fraternize (be on friendly terms with someone, as if with a brother, especially with an enemy)

 Context examples 

Adopted fraternity will not do in this case.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

This artist is much encouraged and esteemed by the whole fraternity.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

A courtesy title for a member of a religious order, fraternity, movement, or other group.

(Brother, NCI Thesaurus)

I have a woman's heart, but not where you are concerned; for you I have only a comrade's constancy; a fellow-soldier's frankness, fidelity, fraternity, if you like; a neophyte's respect and submission to his hierophant: nothing more—don't fear.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)