fraternal Hear it!

fraternal Definition

fra·ter·nal (frə tʉrnəl)

adjective

  1. of or characteristic of a brother or brothers; brotherly
  2. of or like a fraternal order or a fraternity
  3. designating twins, of either the same or different sexes, developed from separately fertilized ova and thus having hereditary characteristics not necessarily the same

Etymology: ME < ML fraternalis < L fraternus, brotherly < frater, brother

fraternal Related Forms

fra·ter·nal·ism′ noun fra·ter·nally adverb

fraternal Synonyms

fraternal

modif.

fraternal Usage Examples

Modifies a noun

  • greeting: RMT General Secretary Bob Crow gave fraternal greetings from his union.
  • twin: Willy Russell's Blood Brothers tells the story of fraternal twins who are separated at birth.
  • delegate: Yet these fraternal delegates saw nothing, heard nothing, knew nothing.
  • relation: Qatar's charge de affairs during the meeting expressed the deep fraternal relations between the two states.
  • bond: A fraternal bond unites these finely-honed instruments of war.
  • organization: The Knights of St Columba is the largest Catholic family fraternal service organization in the UK with eight thousand members.

Modifying Another Word

  • truly: I jumped on board and we parted, both of us filled with truly fraternal emotions.
  • very: As usual for these ESF meetings, debate in Thessaloniki was very fraternal and democratic.