Custom Sorority Jewelry Greek Letter Necklaces Belly Rings Bracelets Charms Dog Tags Earrings Cell Phone Charms and Two Finger Sorority Pride Rings

Sorority from the Latin words frater and soror, meaning brother and sister respectively are social organizations for undergraduate students at North American colleges and universities. There are also analogous, but less common, organizations for secondary students. Typically, fraternities are initiatory organizations, membership is considered active during the undergraduate years only, and the fraternity may be organized to provide academic mutual assistance, residential and dining facilities, and a comprehensive social calendar.

The term fraternities, often colloquially shortened to frats, generally refers to all-male or mixed-sex organizations. The female-only equivalent is usually called a sorority, a word first coined in 1874 at Gamma Phi Beta at Syracuse University; before this, societies for either sex were called fraternities. Some women's organizations continue to prefer to be called women's fraternities.

At times, the term social fraternity is used to refer to four-year, undergraduate, and frequently residential, fraternities as distinct from other kinds of university societies that may have Greek-letter names, such as recognition or honorary societies, departmental or professional societies, ethnic or religious societies, or any other type of organization. Social fraternity is used because these organizations are primarily for social and no other purposes.

The names of North American fraternities and sororities generally consist of two or three Greek letters, often the initials of a Greek motto. For this reason, fraternities and sororities are known collectively as a Greek Community or Greek Society and its members as Greeks. The use of Greek letters started with the first such organization, Phi Beta Kappa. There are exceptions including Acacia, FarmHouse, and Triangle, and the eating clubs and secret societies at some Ivy League colleges, such as Skull and Bones at Yale.

The most recognizable form of fraternity is the social fraternity, which present themselves as societies to help their members better themselves in a social setting.

A variety of fraternities are distinguished from social fraternities by their function. They can be specifically organized for service to the community, or for professional advancement, or for scholastic achievement.

A second group of fraternities were established for different religious or ethnic groups. Some of the social fraternities are expressly Christian, Alpha Chi Rho and Lambda Chi Alpha. There are also Jewish fraternities, for example, Zeta Beta Tau, Alpha Epsilon Pi, and Sigma Alpha Mu; these were established, in part, in response to restrictive clauses that used to exist in many social fraternities laws barring Jewish membership, these clauses were removed in the mid-20th century. There has been much controversy surrounding these kinds of restrictions, and oppose the intent to create supportive communities for distinct groups on the one hand and the intent to create non-discriminatory communities on the other.

There are also fraternities with a cultural or multicultural emphasis. Phi Iota Alpha was the first Latino fraternity, founded in 1931, and there are now 23 Latino fraternities in the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations.

There is a distinct set of Black fraternities and sororities for students of African descent. The institutions are largely identical and have virtually all the parallel structures and relations. Black students are not specifically barred from the non-Black fraternities, and there is black membership, especially in the Northeast and West. One chapter of Psi Upsilon at the University of Pennsylvania has been entirely Black for some years.

There are also fraternities designed for particular class years and are usually categorized separately from other types of fraternities. While these were once quite common in older institutions in the Northeast, the only surviving underclass society, for Sophomores, is Theta Nu Epsilon. Many senior class societies also survive, and they are often simply referred to as Secret Societies.

Philanthropy is usually made a part of any fraternity's or sorority's program and supported by all active members. Typically, a chapter will either engage in fund-raising activities or the members volunteer for programs. These either benefit the academic community or the public at large. There can also be long-term relationships between a particular fraternity or sorority and one of the large national disease-specific foundations.

The early societies were very competitive, for members, for academic honors, and for any other benefit or gain. Some of this competition was seen as divisive on college campuses. Today there is still competition, but that competition is intended to be within limits, and for nobler purposes, such as charitable fundraising. Fraternities also often compete in various sporting events. There is also a greater emphasis on interfraternity cooperation. The single greatest effort along these lines was the creation of the National Interfraternity Conference a century ago, which was intended to minimize conflicts, destructive competition, and encourage student members to see members of other frarternities and sororities as people share common interests.

Most fraternities were originally organized on one campus. A one campus fraternity would be called a local. A local can authorize chapters of the same name at other campuses. After the first authorized chapter, a local would be considered a national, even if with only two chapters. Given the development over the past 180 years, North America now has several large nationals with hundreds of chapters, and the likelihood of any one local now growing to such a scale is small. A local can join one of the pre-existing nationals, and that would be the most typical growth pattern. Two or more nationals can also merge, and some of the larger nationals were created by merger. Several nationals are international, usually only implying chapters in Canada.

The central business office of the organization also commonly referred to as the national. The national may place certain requirements on individual chapters to standardize rituals and policies regarding membership, housing, finances, or behavior. These policies are generally codified in a constitution and bylaws. Fraternities may once have been governed by the original chapter, but virtually all have adopted some version of governance with executive officers who report to a board of trustees, and 'legislative' body consisting of periodic conventions of delegates from all the chapters.

Most fraternities and sororities today maintain traditions which are generally symbolic in nature and closely guarded secrets, calling it their Ritual. They include an initiation ceremony, but may also include passwords, songs, handshakes, and the form of meeting, amongst other things. Meetings of the active members are generally secret and not to be discussed without the formal approval of the chapter as a whole.

For organizations with Greek letters composing their name, these letters are the initials of a motto such as Delta Upsilon, a set of virtues such as Alpha Kappa Lambda, or the history of its organization such as Phi Tau.

Fraternities and sororities often have a number of distinctive emblems, such as colours, flags, flowers, in addition to a badge or pin, crest, and/or seal. An open motto indicating that the organization has a secret motto as well is used to express the unique ideals of a fraternity or sorority.

Fraternities and sororities have created heraldic coats of arms, or 'crests', in order to represent the familial aspect of brotherhood and sisterhood.

Graphic representation of these are found in yearbooks and chapter publications from 1890 to 1925. Engravings were made of coats of arms and tipped into the yearbooks. Sizes range from a square inch to a full page layout. Many of these engravings were signed, creating a period art form. Fraternal crest engravings were typically made by cutting lines in metal or wood for the purpose of printing reproduction. Most of the late 1800s engravings were steelplate cuts. In the early 1900s, it became more common to use photo-engraving, or photogravure to print the coats of arms. Today, these are often torn from old yearbooks and sold, and there is a thriving internet market for them. Destroying the old books for this purpose presents ethical problems.

According to the preface in the Sixth Edition 1918 of The Sorority Handbook by Ida Shaw Martin, the primary fraternal jewelers of the late 19th/early 20th centuries were D. L. Auld Co. of Columbus, L. G. Balfour Co. of Attleboro, Mass., Burr, Patterson and Co. of Detroit, Upmeyer Company of Milwaukee, A. H. Fetting Co. of Baltimore, Hoover and Smith Co. of Philadelpha, O. C. Lanphear of Galesburg, Ill., Miller Jewelry Co. of Cincinnati, J. F. Newman of New York, Edward Roehm of Detroit, and Wright, Kay and Co. of Detroit. Currently the most widely used jewelers are Herff Jones, Jostens, and Balfour. Jewelers' initials and stampings are typically found on the back of pins along with the member name and/or chapter information. The history of fraternal jewelers is important when determining age of non-dated jewelry pieces.

Since fr