Fraternal
Encyclopedia
Fraternal can refer to:
- A fraternal benefit societyBenefit societyA benefit society or mutual aid society is an organization or voluntary association formed to provide mutual aid, benefit or insurance for relief from sundry difficulties...
is a non-profit, mutual aid organization that ensures members and their families and maintains an active lodge system. Members of a fraternal benefit societyBenefit societyA benefit society or mutual aid society is an organization or voluntary association formed to provide mutual aid, benefit or insurance for relief from sundry difficulties...
come together as local volunteer groups that conduct activities to benefit members and their communities. In 2006, members delivered 93 million hours of volunteer service and the societies spent nearly $400 million on fraternal and charitable programs. - A friendly societyFriendly societyA friendly society is a mutual association for insurance, pensions or savings and loan-like purposes, or cooperative banking. It is a mutual organization or benefit society composed of a body of people who join together for a common financial or social purpose...
or fraternal organization. - A term relating to an organization which consists mainly of men.
- In biologyBiologyBiology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
: EmbryoEmbryoAn embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...
s derived from two separate fertilized ovaOvumAn ovum is a haploid female reproductive cell or gamete. Both animals and embryophytes have ova. The term ovule is used for the young ovum of an animal, as well as the plant structure that carries the female gametophyte and egg cell and develops into a seed after fertilization...
; "fraternal twinsTWINSTwo Wide-Angle Imaging Neutral-Atom Spectrometers are a pair of NASA instruments aboard two United States National Reconnaissance Office satellites in Molniya orbits. TWINS was designed to provide stereo images of the Earth's ring current. The first instrument, TWINS-1, was launched aboard USA-184...
are biovular"