The words fraternity and sorority originate from Latin words frater and soror which mean brother and sister respectively. These are mostly college groups and club like organizations; but they do not promote any profession and discipline. Basically they are for simple social cause, or literary or leadership abilities. Most North American universities have fraternities and sororities. Many students in colleges and universities join these groups for social purposes. A student can be a member of only one such group and these can be joined by invitation only. There is only one international fraternity or sorority by a particular name but it has many college chapters.
The groups can be all male groups or all female groups or mixed sex groups. The name of North American fraternities and sororities have two or three Greek letters, thus they are also referred to as Greeks. These fraternities or sororities have shortened nicknames like Delta Delta Delta which is called Tri delta. A male only group is called a fraternity and female equivalent is referred to as sorority. A female only group, called Gamma Phi Beta was founded in 1874 in New York and is one of the oldest sororities in US and Canada. Now it has 119 active college chapters all across USA and Canada. The term sorority was first coined by Dr Frank Smalley for Gamma Phi Beta.