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fraternity
5 dictionary results for: Fraternity
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
fra·ter·ni·ty       [fruh-tur-ni-tee] Pronunciation Key
–noun, plural -ties.
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.
[Origin: 1300–50; ME fraternite < L frāternitās. See fraternal, -ity]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
fra·ter·ni·ty       (frə-tûr'nĭ-tē)  Pronunciation Key 
n.   pl. fra·ter·ni·ties
  1. A body of people associated for a common purpose or interest, such as a guild.
  2. A group of people joined by similar backgrounds, occupations, interests, or tastes: the fraternity of bird watchers.
  3. A chiefly social organization of men students at a college or university, usually designated by Greek letters.
  4. Roman Catholic Church A sodality.
  5. The quality or condition of being brothers; brotherliness.


[Middle English fraternite, from Old French, from Latin frāternitās, from frāternus, fraternal; see fraternal.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
fraternity 
c.1330, "body of men associated by common interest," from O.Fr. fraternité, from L. fraternitatem (nom. fraternitas), from fraternus "brotherly," from frater "brother," from PIE *bhrater (see brother). College Greek-letter organization sense is from 1777, first in reference to Phi Beta Kappa; shortened form frat first recorded 1895. Fraternize is attested from 1611, "to sympathize as brothers;" sense of "cultivate friendship with enemy troops" is from 1897; used oddly by World War II armed forces to mean "have sex with women from enemy countries." Fraternal is 1421, from M.L. fraternalis, from L. fraternus.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
fraternity

noun
1. a social club for male undergraduates 
2. people engaged in a particular occupation; "the medical fraternity" [syn: brotherhood] 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Fraternity

Fra*ter"ni*ty\, n.; pl. Fraternities. [F. fraternit['e], L. fraternitas.]

1. The state or quality of being fraternal or brotherly; brotherhood.

2. A body of men associated for their common interest, business, or pleasure; a company; a brotherhood; a society; in the Roman Catholic Chucrch, an association for special religious purposes, for relieving the sick and destitute, etc.

3. Men of the same class, profession, occupation, character, or tastes.

With what terms of respect knaves and sots will speak of their own fraternity! --South.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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