confraternity

noun

con·​fra·​ter·​ni·​ty ˌkän-frə-ˈtər-nə-tē 

1

: a society devoted especially to a religious or charitable cause

2

: fraternal union

Examples of confraternity in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The subject was popular among artists during the Renaissance, and Carpaccio told the overwrought story in a sequence of nine large canvases designed for a confraternity building known as the Scuola di Sant Orsola. — Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 9 Dec. 2022

In the 16th century, one confraternity built a small church inside the arena, Santa Maria della Pieta, which still exists. — Elisabetta Povoledo, BostonGlobe.com, 12 June 2022

Little was immediately drawn to Garvey’s ethos of self-determination and Pan-African confraternity — as was Earl Little, a Baptist minister and recent immigrant who had escaped the violence of Jim Crow Georgia. — New York Times, 19 Mar. 2022

The confraternity that had the chapel built in the 15th century still exists today -- as do other similar ones. — Julia Buckley, CNN, 1 Feb. 2022

Literary biographers—writers who devote their lives to other writers’ lives—are a confraternity of old soldiers who like to trade battle stories. — Judith Thurman, The New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2019

Word History

Etymology

Middle English confraternite, from Medieval Latin confraternitat-, confraternitas, from confrater fellow, brother, from Latin com- + frater brother — more at brother

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for confraternity

• taciturnity
• eternity
• fraternity
• maternity
• modernity
• paternity