Read along with the three podcasts, or open the full dictionary entry for Brother for the definition, Arabic meaning, synonyms and example sentences.
Narrator: Today's word is "brother" — a noun, pronounced /ˈbrʌðə/, with the stress on "bruh".
Narrator: Brother means a male sibling, sharing at least one parent with another person.
Narrator: In plain English, brother describes that close family relationship, central to sibling bonds worldwide.
Narrator: It traces to Old English "brothor", a Germanic word shared across many related languages.
Narrator: "Half-brother" describes a sibling sharing only one parent, rather than both.
Narrator: It differs from "friend" by biology — brother implies shared family, friend implies chosen closeness.
Narrator: "Brothers in arms" figuratively describes close companions bonded through shared struggle or hardship.
Narrator: Family description and figurative camaraderie both constantly rely on "brother" as vocabulary.
Narrator: So remember: brother marks family bond — a male sibling, or figuratively, close companionship through shared experience.
Speaker A: "Brothers in arms" always sounds so powerful. Is that figurative sense really connected to the literal, family-sibling meaning?
Speaker B: Genuinely, loosely connected, honestly! BROTHER, from Old English "brothor", family sibling, extended figuratively into describing close bonds formed through shared hardship, like soldiers fighting together. Both senses involve deep, loyal connection.
Speaker A: So the figurative use really does borrow that same deep, loyal-connection feeling from the family relationship?
Speaker B: Exactly — that deep connection is precisely why brothers in arms feels so powerful and loyal!
Speaker A: Example sentences?
Speaker B: "My brother lives in another city"; "they became brothers in arms during the war"; "she has two brothers and a sister" — family detail, wartime bond, and family structure.
Speaker A: Common mistakes?
Speaker B: Regular noun — brother, brothers; "brother-in-law" is hyphenated when describing a spouse's brother!
Speaker A: Close relatives?
Speaker B: "Sibling" the general cousin, "kin" the broader-family twin, "comrade" the figurative-bond alternative. Brother keeps its warm, loyal charm!
Speaker B: Let's use "brother" in AI prompts — useful for family-tree genealogy apps and HR emergency-contact database design.
Speaker A: So brother in a prompt could help build a family-tree genealogy app, or an HR emergency-contact database?
Speaker B: Right. For a family-tree genealogy app, you'd write:
Prompt: Add a field linking each person to their brother or sister, building the sibling connections into the family tree.
Speaker A: Good — what about an HR system letting employees list a brother as their designated emergency contact?
Speaker B: The HR-database prompt:
Prompt: Design a form letting employees list a brother or other relative as emergency contact, storing phone and relationship.
Speaker A: A social-app feature helping users tag family members, including a brother, in shared photo albums?
Speaker B: The social-app prompt:
Prompt: Let users tag their brother in shared photo albums, notifying them whenever a new tagged photo is added.
Speaker A: One more?
Speaker B: The insurance-form prompt:
Prompt: Build a beneficiary form letting the policyholder name their brother, storing the relationship type for the record.
Brother — meaning in Arabic & definition More B courses GL Dictionary