brother
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A male with the same parents as someone else.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
bruhtherSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbɹʌðɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A male with the same parents as someone else
“My brother still lives with our parents.”
Son of the same parents as another person.
A male person who is a fellow member (of a fraternity or religion or other group)
“None of his brothers would betray him.”
A male having at least one parent in common with another person.
A male fellow member of a religious community, church, trades union etc.
Somebody, usually male, connected by a common cause, situation, or affection.
verb
transitive
To treat as a brother.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A male with the same parents as someone else
Used this way, brother is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“My brother still lives with our parents.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use brother
- “My brother still lives with our parents.”noun
- “None of his brothers would betray him.”noun
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Liquid in which meat and vegetables are simmered.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Like or characteristic of or befitting a brother.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A brother by marriage.
A kindly and lenient attitude toward people.
A totalitarian leader and invader of privacy.
Your foster brother is a male who is not a son of your parents but who is raised by your parents.
A brother who has only one parent in common with you.
A younger brother.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The friendship characteristic of blood brothers.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Keep learning “brother” by choosing the kind of practice you need next.
- Practice sentence writingWrite sentences with vocabulary and get instant feedback.
- Practice in contextAnswer short vocabulary questions drawn from real situations.
- Review vocabularyTest your recall and strengthen words over time.
- Practice typingType vocabulary from meanings, examples and other prompts.
Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.