Brotherhood

//ˈbɹʌð.ɚˌhʊd// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state of being brothers or a brother (also figuratively). countable, uncountable

    "brotherdom"

  2. 2
    the feeling that men should treat one another like brothers wordnet
  3. 3
    An association of people for any purpose, such as a society of monks; a fraternity. countable, uncountable

    "James formed a kind of brotherhood for ex-pats who were working in Valencia."

  4. 4
    people engaged in a particular occupation wordnet
  5. 5
    All the people engaged in the same business, especially those of the same profession countable, uncountable

    "the legal brotherhood"

Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    an organization of employees formed to bargain with the employer wordnet
  2. 7
    People, or (poetically) things, of the same kind. countable, uncountable

    "a brotherhood of venerable trees"

  3. 8
    the kinship relation between a male offspring and the siblings wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
fraternityfraternitysodalityunionaffectionatenessaffiliation

Example

More examples

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

Etymology

From Middle English brotherhod, equivalent to brother + -hood, from earlier brotherhede, alteration (influenced by suffixes in -hood, -head) of Early Middle English brotherrede (“brotherhood, fraternity”), from Old English brōþorrǣden (“brotherhood, fellowship”), equivalent to brother + -red (see brotherred). More at brother, -red. Piecewise doublet of friarhood.

Related phrases

blood brotherhoodbrotherhood-in-arms

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.