Sorority
nounA social club or society of women students at a college or university, usually identified by Greek letters.
How to spell sorority
8 letters · 4 syllables
How to pronounce sorority
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does sorority mean?
- nounA social club or society of women students at a college or university, usually identified by Greek letters.
Sorority in a sentence
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She joined a sorority during her first semester at the state university.
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The sorority hosted a fundraising event for the local shelter.
Where does sorority come from?
Language of origin: Latin
This word traces back to the Latin soror, meaning simply 'sister', the same root that gives us 'sorority' in the sense of sisterhood. In medieval Latin the form sororitas was coined to mean a community or society of sisters, paralleling fraternitas ('brotherhood') from frater, 'brother'. English adopted sorority in the sixteenth century, at first meaning sisterly fellowship in a general sense, before the word narrowed in nineteenth-century North America to its now familiar meaning: a social club for women students at a college or university. The single 'r' in the middle is the usual spelling trap, because the doubled 'r' of the unrelated-looking 'fraternity' tempts writers to insert an extra letter. Keeping the Latin soror in mind, with its one 'r', is a reliable way to remember it.
How the word is built
- soror (sister)
- -ity (noun-forming suffix denoting a state or group)
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