Brother Definition: Examples, Interesting Idioms, and Quiz

Understanding how to spell “brother” is important, but you also need to learn how to use it in the context of family relationships.

Brotherhood can be hard to explain, so you may need some “brother” synonyms to express the concept better.

Related nouns: family sibling relative

Synonyms (contextual): bro mate buddy

Common collocations: big brother older brother meet a brother

Learning common word combinations will help you to define “brother” and memorize it, so you can talk to native speakers later.

With adjectives: twin brother little brother younger brother

With verbs: have a brother miss a brother visit a brother

With nouns (noun + noun): brotherhood brother-in-law stepbrother

The term “brother” is involved in many idiomatic phrases in English that are not limited to literal family ties and are used to describe relationships of various kinds such as friendship, watchfulness, and intimate connections.

• Brother from another mother — refers to a boy or a man who is close to you as a bro.

  Fred is my dearest friend. He is literally my brother from another mother.

• Everybody and their brother — a fun phrase people use to describe something large.

  It seems like everybody and their brother watched that Netflix show except me!

• Big brother — commonly is used to describe someone who is like a mentor, not necessarily a blood-related bro.

  Louis watched me when I was preparing for the match. He is a big brother I can rely on.

These interactive and easy activities will help you to check your understanding of the “brother” word.

Different cultures teach us how to spell “brother” so that we can understand more about our world. Here are the three examples for you:

This term carries a remarkable history, from its appearance to some specific forms English speakers use nowadays. Let’s cover some of these facts.

• The short form “bro” appeared in 1533.

  It is common now, you can hear it in songs, read in books, but the history of this term is wild. “Bro” was written over 500 years ago as an abbreviation for “brother.”

• The actual word came from Proto-Germanic.

  As you can see from the table above, it is similar to the German variant “Bruder,” and it is also related to the Dutch “broeder.”

• The meaning of this word that we know now is from the late 14th century.

  The etymology says that the definition “male person in relation to any other person of the same ancestry” came to the language earlier.

Many thinkers and authors use this word to express their ideas about family lines, human connection, and even some common experiences from having brothers. Let’s check on them.