Word.ws English Dictionary

brotherly

/ˈbɹʌð.ə.li/US/ˈbɹʌð.ɚ.li/

brotherly adjective: of or characteristic of brothers.

Adjective

brotherly (comparative more brotherly or brotherlier, superlative most brotherly or brotherliest)

  1. Of or characteristic of brothers.
    • brotherly love
    • Do not despair. To be friendless is indeed to be unfortunate; but the hearts of men, when unprejudiced by any obvious self-interest, are full of brotherly love and charity.1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter VII, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume II, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding...

Adverb

brotherly (comparative more brotherly, superlative most brotherly)

  1. In the manner of a brother, as a brother, as brothers.
    • Praising and pleading him, / Lovingly needing him, / Brotherly feeding him, / Preaching and speeding him, / Blessing, succeeding Him, / Thus is the Master near,— / Thus is He here!1879, Bayard Taylor, Studies in German Literature, page 355
    • I might have seen him, and talked with him brotherly, face to face.1881, William Dean Howells, A Fearful Responsibility: And Other Stories, page 159

brotherly meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

brotherly in Tamil

சகோதரத்துவமான

brotherly in Bengali

brotherly, brotherlike
ভ্রাতৃত্বসুলভ bhratrittośulobh

brotherly in Malayalam

of or characteristic of brothers
സാഹോദര്യ sāhōdarya

brotherly in Kannada

ಸೋದರ ಭಾವದ, ಸೋದರಿಕೆಯ
More languagesFewer languages
brotherly in Punjabi
ਬਰਾਦਰਾਨਾ barādrānā
brotherly in Sinhala
සහෝදර sahōdara
brotherly in Arabic
أَخَوِيّ ʔaḵawiyy

Examples of brotherly in a sentence

  • "What honest man, who is not insane, would take lost women and thieves into his house to dwell with him sisterly and brotherly?"1908 February 19, Jack London, The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC:
  • There was no way she'd be able to act brotherly/sisterly with him.2012, Laura Hilton, Promised To Another:
  • So, to be a brother and to act brotherly is a universe of structured experience blissful in Light (higher vibrations) and brightful in darkness (or lower vibrations).2025, Dr. Charles Onwulata, The Wise Sayings of SZOKWA Book II: A Book of Answers:
  • They should behave brotherly toward one another because they are rational and moral beings.2025, Usha Rana, Rupender Singh, Combating Human Trafficking:

Forms of brotherly

Adjective
comparativemore brotherly
comparativebrotherlier
superlativemost brotherly
superlativebrotherliest
Adverb
comparativemore brotherly
superlativemost brotherly

Origin of brotherly

From Middle English brotherly, from Old English brōþorlīċ, from Proto-West Germanic *brōþerlīk, from Proto-Germanic *brōþērlīkaz, equivalent to brother + -ly (adjectival suffix). Cognate with Dutch broederlijk (“brotherly”), German brüderlich (“brotherly”), Swedish broderlig (“brotherly”). Piecewise doublet of friarly.

From Middle English brotherly, equivalent to brother + -ly (adverbial suffix).

Words formed from brotherly

Phrases with brotherly

Questions about brotherly

What does brotherly mean?
Brotherly means of or characteristic of brothers.
What is brotherly in Tamil?
Brotherly in Tamil is சகோதரத்துவமான. See Brotherly meaning in Tamil.
How do you use brotherly in a sentence?
"What honest man, who is not insane, would take lost women and thieves into his house to dwell with him sisterly and brotherly?"
What part of speech is brotherly?
Brotherly can be an adjective or an adverb.
How do you pronounce brotherly?
Brotherly is pronounced /ˈbɹʌð.ə.li/ (UK).

Words near brotherly in the dictionary

  1. brotherliest
  2. brotherlike
  3. brotherliness
  4. brotherlinesses
  5. brotherlocks
  6. brotherly
  7. brotherly love
  8. brotherman
  9. brothermen
  10. brotherment
  11. brothern

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brotherly (page history and authors); brotherly (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ভ্রাতৃত্বসুলভ (Bengali) (page history and authors); brotherly (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਬਰਾਦਰਾਨਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); සහෝදර (Sinhala) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-brotherly.wav.

Cite this entry: “brotherly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brotherly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.