Frequently Used Terms
Fraternities and Sororities have many unique terms and abbreviations. The chart below outlines and defines some commonly used phrases in Fraternity/Sorority Life. Wether you are new to Fraternity/Sorority or just need a refresher – we hope this resource helps. To easily locate a specific councils language search AGC (Asian Greek Council), IFC (Interfraternity Council), MGC (Multicultural Greek Council), NPHC (National Pan-Hellenic Council), or PHC (Panhellenic Council)
| Term | Definition | Council |
|---|---|---|
| Active | See Collegian | All |
| Advisor | An alumnus or alumna member who serves as a resource for the active chapter and liaison between the alums and collegians. | All |
| Advisory Board | Members of an alumni chapter that advises the chapter. | All |
| Affiliate | To join with an organization. Colonies petition national organizations to affiliate with them. A member who switches schools may also affiliate with the chapter at his/her new school. | All |
| Alumni | Members of a fraternity who have graduated. (Singular is alumnus) | All |
| Alumnae | Members of a sorority who have graduated. (Singular is alumna) | All |
| Badge/Pin | Also known as a pin, it is an item of jewelry given to members upon initiation. The badge is to be worn at all official functions, and upon a members death, it should be returned to the sorority or fraternity headquarters. The badge must be worn with business-like attire, usually over the heart and above all other pins. | All |
| Bid | An invitation to join an IFC fraternity or NPC sorority. They are given out during formal recruitment (on Bid Day for sororities, at any time before the end of formal recruitment for fraternities). The NPHC and NALFO/NMGC process does not include bids. | IFC, PHC |
| Bid Day | The last day of recruitment in which potential new members receive formal invitations to join a sorority. | PHC |
| Bid Matching | a system for matching the choice of the potential member with the choice of the chapter | PHC |
| Big | Nickname for big brother or sister, a mentor assigned to a new member. Many organizations have special names for these pairings. | All |
| Brother | Term that fraternity members call each other | All |
| Chapter | A branch of a national sorority or fraternity, established at a campus. Each will have their own name, usually designated by Greek letters. | All |
| Chapter House | A house on campus where members of the organization reside. Not all campuses have chapter houses. Some have designated rooms given to each fraternity or sorority called Chapter Rooms, or a special residence hall where each group gets a floor. | All |
| Chapter Meeting | A meeting held to discuss fraternity or sorority business | All |
| Charter | Permission from the national organization to have a chapter | All |
| Collegian/Collegiate | An initiated member of a fraternity or sorority currently in college. Formerly/also known as active | All |
| Crossed | The date on which an associate member crossed into a fraternity or sorority to become an active member. Usually, a term used in culturally-centered Greek organizations. Typically used for AGC, MGC, and NPHC. | AGC, MGC, NPHC |
| Depledge/Drop | The process where a new member elects or is asked to relinquish membership during their process/initiation period. Those who depledge an NPC sorority may not begin a process with another sorority for one full calendar year. | PHC |
| Dirty Rushing | When one organization will attempt to influence a potential new member through gifts, rumors, etc. | PHC |
| Dues | Charge for joining a fraternity or sorority. Covers costs of national and local operations, formal events, activities and other events. The amount varies based on the organization. | All |
| Expansion | When an organization is looking to expand and open a chapter at a new school. | PHC |
| Formal Recruitment | The fully structured Spring Recruitment process for Panhellenic organizations in which all chapters participate | PHC |
| Founder's Day | An event celebrated by fraternities and sororities to highlight the founding of their organization and celebrate its history. It’s not necessarily held on the day the organization was founded. | All |
| Fraternity | A group of people brought together because of mutual interests. Generally thought of as a group of men, but also refers to co-ed organizations and many sororities are officially fraternities. | All |
| House Corp | The entity that holds the title to property that a chapter lives or meets in. This is usually an alumni group like an advisory board. | IFC, PHC |
| House Director/House Mom/House Manager | A person hired to live in the chapter house and supervise the chapter members. | IFC, PHC |
| Inactive Member | A member who has elected to become inactive in fraternity or sorority life for various reasons. They have no say or participation in chapter/organization activities. | All |
| Informational | Recruitment event for culturally based groups. | AGC, MGC, NPHC |
| Initiate | A person who has recently learned the ritual of a fraternity or sorority and is a full member. | All |
| Initiation | A ceremony where a pledge/prospective new member becomes a full member of the organization. Initiation ceremonies are private and different for all organizations. | All |
| Legacy | The son, daughter, brother or sister of an organization’s member. Some organizations also include grandchildren or stepchildren. Sorority rules sometimes dictate she cannot be cut from the first round of parties, but in no way are legacies guaranteed a bid from the organization they are a legacy to. | All |
| Letters | The first Greek letter of each Greek word that makes up the name of the fraternity or sorority are often displayed on clothing. Some organizations don’t allow new members to wear letters (only the name spelled out), while others do. | All |
| Line | An term equal to a pledge/new member class. They are the potential new members of the organization. Lines are often given names. | AGC, MGC, NPHC |
| Little/Lil/(brother/sister) | Nickname for a Big’s new member that they mentor. | All |
| Mixer/Exchange/Social | A party between a fraternity and sorority, or several fraternities and sororities, often involving themes or games. | All |
| National/National Office/HQ | A fraternity or sorority’s national headquarters. Usually erroneously called “national”, as most organizations are international, having chapters outside of the U.S. | All |
| Neophyte | New member of Greek Letter organization; also called a ‘Neo’. | AGC, MGC, NPHC |
| New Member | After receiving and accepting a bid, the person becomes a new member. Formerly called a pledge, sometimes called Associate Member. | IFC,PHC |
| New Member (Pledge) Class (PC) | The group of new members that will be going through the New Member Program and Initiation together. Formerly called a pledge class, this term is still used among the fraternities. | All |
| New Member Educator | The liaison between the new members and the chapter, they are responsible for implementing and monitoring the new member program and preparing the new members for initiation. | All |
| New Member Program/Period | The time period where the new member learns about their new fraternity or sorority before initiation. Lasts from bid day until initiation. Formerly called pledge period (and still called this in fraternities). | All |
| Number | The number you are assigned based on the chronological order you are in on your initiation line (often members of other culturally based organizations identify or relate to one another by distinguishing that they are the “same” number). | MGC, NPHC |
| Order of Omega | An honor society for Greek members who demonstrate outstanding leadership and academic achievement. | All |
| Paraphernalia/Regalia | This is clothing, items and accessories which display the organization’s letters. | NPHC |
| Pinning | Designates the start of a new member process. The new member wears a fraternity/sorority pin and at the moment of pinning, officially becomes a new member. Can also be a term for a fraternity member giving their pin to a partner. | IFC, PHC |
| Pledge | See New Member | All |
| Potential New Member (PNM) | A person who is interested in joining a Greek letter organization, and will participate in rush, intake or recruitment. Formerly called rushees by sororities, the term is still used by fraternities. Also abbreviated to PNM. | IFC, PHC |
| Probate/Coming Out Show/New Member Presentation | A performance by newly inducted or soon to be inducted members. A way for organizations to showcase the newest members of the organization | MGC, NPHC |
| Ritual | A secret ceremony of a Greek organization. Also, the formal document that contains the secret principles and ideals upon which the organization was founded. Ritual elements are sacred to each fraternity and sorority and have been handed down through generations. Only initiated members may be privy to rituals. | All |
| Recruitment | The process where fraternities and sororities get new members. Potential new members tour each house, are invited to socials and choose the new members of their organization. The old term is rush, which is still used by the fraternities. The formal name is Formal Recruitment. | IFC, PHC |
| Rush | See Recruitment. Rush is an outdated word that was replaced in 1999 by recruitment. Rush referred to the practice of fraternities “rushing” to the train station to meet the newest members of the freshman class of a college or university and pinning their fraternity colors on the freshmen to identify them as a potential member of that fraternity. | All |
| Sorority | A Greek organization for women. Many sororities are actually fraternities, as many were created before the word sorority was coined. Despite this, most will call themselves sororities. | All |
| AGC | Stands for Asian Greek Council, and is the governing body of the AGC sororities and fraternities. | AGC |
| IFC | Stands for Interfraternity Council, and is the governing body of the NIC fraternities, on some campuses local fraternities are housed under the IFC. | IFC |
| Lavaliere | A necklace with the sorority letters, often worn by members. Lavaliering is a process where a fraternity member would give their lavaliere to a partner, as a sign of a serious relationship. Depending on the campus, this can be equal to “pinning”. | IFC |
| NIC | North-American Interfraternity Conference is the trade association representing 75 International and National Men’s Fraternities. | IFC |
| Sweetheart | Sorority member or other woman chosen to serve as a sweetheart of a fraternity, usually chosen because of work they have done with the fraternity. | IFC |
| MGC | the Multicultural Greek Council, the umbrella council for Multicultural Greek Organizations | MGC |
| Continuous Open Bidding (COB) | Also known as COB. If a sorority does not reach the allowable membership total during formal recruitment or if they do not get quota, they may hold an informal recruitment and offer bids to potential new members. | PHC |
| Intentional Single Preference (ISP) | When a prospective member only puts down one on her preference card. This sometimes lessens the chances of her getting a bid, and isn’t recommended. Formerly called suiciding, but was changed to ISP because of the negative implications of the term. | PHC |
| NPC | The National Panhellenic Conference is the organization that governs the 26 national women’s sororities. | PHC |
| Panhellenic Council/PHC | The governing body of the NPC sororities of a particular campus. | PHC |
| Quota | A set number of new members a sorority can extend bids to. Quota is determined by taking the total number of potential new members at Preference (sometimes from the second round of invitational parties, depending on the school), and dividing by the number of sororities. For example, if there are five sororities on campus, and 100 PNMs on preference night, each sorority can take a maximum of 20 new members. | PHC |
| Recruitment Counselor (RC) | A sorority member who leads a recruitment group (this is the practice of NPC). During recruitment, they disaffiliate from their sorority so that they will not bias the potential new members. | PHC |
| Preference/Pref | The final event held by sororities during Recruitment. | PHC |
| Total | The maximum number of members a sorority can have. Sororities can only exceed total during formal recruitment, if for example, taking new members would put them at 180 members and total is 140. If a sorority has obtained quota during recruitment and is still below total, that sorority may continue to ask new members to join. | PHC |
| Anchor | The last person of the line. | NPHC |
| Ace | The first person of the line. | NPHC |
| Call/Chant | A yell used mostly by NPHC organizations (although some NIC, NPC, NALFO, NMGC and local orgs have calls as well). Used to identify and greet brothers and sisters. Emulating a call/chant is a sign of disrespect. | NPHC |
| "Divine 9" or D9 | A nickname for the nine historically African American Greek organizations on the National Pan-Hellenic Council. | NPHC |
| Frater | A term used to identify members of the same fraternity; sometimes used to refer to any fraternity man of an NPHC organization. | NPHC |
| Intake/MIP | Term for the process by which NPHC members are selected to become new members of an organization. Much more secretive than recruitment or rush, but generally includes an application and an interview process, followed by an educational program done at the local level conducted by both undergraduates and alumni, then an initiation (generally known as “crossing”). | NPHC |
| Jewel | A founder of an NPHC organization. | NPHC |
| NPHC | The National Pan-Hellenic Council, the governing body of the nine historically African American fraternities and sororities, also known as the Divine Nine. | NPHC |
| On the Yard/Yard | an NPHC phrase meaning that a chapter is currently chartered on campus | NPHC |
| Pearl | A founder of an NPHC organization. | NPHC |
| Prophyte | A term used to describe an older member of an NPHC, NALFO or NMGC organization that has inducted new members. | AGC, MGC, NPHC |
| Sands | An NPHC term for members of your new member class or Greeks who became members the same semester. Comes from the phrase “cross the burning sands” which means to cross over (become initiated) into full membership. | NPHC |
| Ship | Individuals who are members of the same intake class. (Line) | NPHC |
| Sign | A unique display expressed by hand symbols, typically by NPHC organizations. Emulating the sign is a sign of disrespect. | NPHC |
| Sorer | Means sister, this is a term used by NPHC sorority members to acknowledge one another. | NPHC |
| Step Show | A show performed by NPHC, NALFO and NMGC organizations (as well as other organizations) which include a combination of stepping and strolling, among other activities. | AGC, MGC, NPHC |
| Stepping | is a form of percussive dance in which the participant’s entire body is used as an instrument to produce complex rhythms and sounds through a mixture of footsteps and handclaps. | NPHC |
| Stroll"ing" | Also known as ‘party walk(ing)’ An energetic, synchronized dance. Typically, NPHC Organizational members move together in a line expressing pride for their organization. In this line, members may express their pride through use of their organization’s call, sign or historical information, ritual/custom dances, etc. All of this is done through movements that are unique to a particular organization. Emulating or cutting in/through the line is considered a sign of disrespect. | NPHC |
| Tail | The last person of the line. | NPHC |