bro

noun \ ˈbrō \

|Updated on: 13 Jul 2018

Definition of bro

plural bros

1 informal : brother

… Tommy has a worldview that's larger than his baby bro's.
—Leah Rozen

2 US slang

a : a male friend

hanging out with his bros

One quirky edge the Olympics haven't yet sanded away is the habit of extreme athletes to stick together. Like, no matter where we're from, we're all bros. That kind of thing.
—Devin Gordon et al.

b —used as a friendly way of addressing a man or boy

Hey, bro, what's up?

Catch you later, bro.

c : a young male who is part of a group of similar male friends stereotypically characterized as hearty, athletic, self-confident, party-loving, etc.

The recent season of "Project Greenlight," on HBO, made explicit how resistant to race talk Hollywood can be, a stifling culture of bros bonding with mirror versions of themselves.
—Emily Nussbaum

These were nerds who could pass for bros on a dorm-room sofa …
—Ben McGrath

—often used before another noun

It's the continuation of the bro culture. In my experience, in this world right now, white guys have an advantage. In their training, they've been given access and tools that I haven't. White men get behind each other and empower themselves.
—Tanya Holland

See bro defined for English-language learners

See bro defined for kids

Recent Examples of bro from the Web

His boys were mostly a bunch of lax bros from Duke and Cornell, with a smattering of friendly Princeton overlords-in-training and two Indians from Caltech.

— gary shteyngart, The New Yorker, "The Luck of Kokura," 18 June 2018
After spending some 70 years fighting the forces of evil in the shadows of superhero bros like Superman and Batman, the Amazonian warrior rocked the box office with her 2017 blockbuster film.

— arthur levine, USA TODAY, "Exclusive: Six Flags Fiesta Texas' Wonder Woman coaster review," 1 May 2018
FanCon was to be that convention, free of the obnoxious racist fan bros who often dominate other major genre conventions.

— jason johnson, The Root, "Universal Fan ‘Con’? A Conversation With Black Girl Nerds’ Jamie Broadnax on the Biggest Black Convention That Wasn’t," 27 Apr. 2018
In San Francisco, expressing an opinion about scooting is, in effect, casting a vote in the long-running referendum about the cultural mores of tech bros.

— Fortune, "The New Battle Between Cities and Ride Sharing Apps Is About Motorized Scooters," 18 Apr. 2018
Such skittishness could easily be interpreted as tacit acknowledgment of the inherent tackiness of vaping, which has long been associated with a certain kind of flat-brim-hat-wearing bro.

— julia felsenthal, Vogue, "Health Concerns About Vaping are Growing—Here's Why," 2 Apr. 2018
The lame white millennial returns in the second episode of Atlanta: Robbin' Season in various places—whether in the form of tech bros, an overeager drug dealer, or a insufferably earnest YouTube vlogger.

— matt miller, Esquire, "Atlanta Has Perfected the Lame White Millennial," 9 Mar. 2018
The tech industry, long mired in its image of bros in hoodies crushing code, has made attempts over the past several years to address its diversity problem.

— marissa lang, San Francisco Chronicle, "Rwanda is pushing gender diversity in tech. Should Silicon Valley take notes?," 13 Jan. 2018
Beiber embraced his inner bro in a black T-shirt over basketball shorts work with socks and Nike sandals; Baldwin upped the fashion quotient in a glossy leather jacket paired with light wash jeans and an Adidas sports bra.

— janelle okwodu, Vogue, "Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin Take Couples Style to the Next Level," 22 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'bro.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.