How to Speak Greek

Active/Initiated Member – Any member who has gone through the initiation ceremony and is currently enrolled in college.

Alumna – A graduated member of a women–s sorority/fraternity. Plural: Alumnae

Alum/Alumnus/Alumni – A graduated member(s) of a men–s fraternity.

Bid – A formal invitation to become a member of a fraternity or sorority.

Big Sister – An older member assigned to assist a new member.

Chapter – Local campus group of a national sorority.

Continuous Open Bidding (COB) – Informal recruitment whereby chapters who do not currently meet quota can continue to accept members throughout the academic year. Policy varies among universities.

Cross-Cut – Describes what happens to girls who remain unmatched with any of their Preference party choices of sororities at the end of Recruitment week. This list of girls is usually very small, but it does occur.

Deferred Recruitment – Formal Recruitment scheduled sometime after classes begin in the Fall or in the second semester. 

Dirty Rush – Conversation or activities – initiated by an active toward a potential member – that are clearly outside of Panhellenic rules. 

Early Release – A National Panhellenic policy requiring sororities to reduce an assigned percentage of potential members from each successive Recruitment event. 

Fraternity – A men's Greek organization. Some sororities are identified as a fraternity in their official name; others describe themselves as being a "women's fraternity.

Greek Organization – A fraternity or sorority (social, honor, or professional).

Greeks – Members of a fraternity or sorority. The term Greek is used because a majority of fraternities and sororities use Greek letters to distinguish themselves.

Hazing – Any conduct which subjects another person, whether physically, mentally, emotionally, or psychologically, to anything that may endanger, abuse, degrade, or intimidate the person as a condition of association with a group or organization, regardless of the person's consent or lack of consent. All National Panhellenic members have "No Hazing" policies and take strict actions against any chapter that participates in hazing activities.

House – The residence of or an informal reference to an individual's Greek organization.

Inactive Member – A member who has no participation in undergraduate chapter activities.

Initiation – A formal ceremony that brings about the transition from new member to initiated member.

Interfraternity Council (IFC) – The representative governing body of all fraternities.

Legacy – Generally defined as a daughter, sister or granddaughter of an initiated member, although each sorority has its own definition.  Sororities try to extend every courtesy to legacies and try to get to know them, but sororities cannot guarantee them invitations or membership.  Legacies must meet the same qualification standards that non-legacies meet.

Letter of Support – An informal letter written by an alumna, or sometimes an active member, of a sorority that casually introduces a woman going through Recruitment. This does not replace the Reference.

Member – See Active.

Mutual Selection – Describes the process where both sororities and potential members make choices for membership. Actual process varies by campus.

National – A term referring to the national headquarters of a given fraternity or sorority.

National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) – The governing body for 26 national women's fraternities/sororities. www.npcwowen.org>

New Member – A person who has accepted a bid to join a fraternity or sorority chapter, but has not yet been initiated.

Panhellenic Council (PHC) – The local university governing body of all sororities of the National Panhellenic Conference.

Philanthropy – Community service events done by fraternities and sororities to raise money for local and national charities.

Pledge – The former term for new member.

Pledging/Pledgeship – The former terms used for individuals who are becoming members.

Potential new member – A person going through the Recruitment process.

Quota – The specified number of new members each organization can accept.

Recommendation – See Reference.

Recruitment – A program (and period of time) of membership recruitment by Greek organizations. Recruitment is primarily a process for exchanging information: sorority members give information about their respective organizations to potential new members. The potential members give information about themselves and inquire about the missions, philosophies, financial obligations, alumni opportunities and membership commitment of the organization that she is visiting.

Recruitment Counselors – A sorority member who has disaffiliated with her sorority during Formal Recruitment to assist potential new members. Recruitment Counselors keep their chapter affiliation a secret during Recruitment in order to be unbiased representatives of Panhellenic. Depending on the university, a Recruitment Counselor could be called a Rho Gamma. Formerly known as a Rho Chi.

Recruitment Chair – The person from each fraternity or sorority who is in charge of each chapter's Recruitment functions.

(Local) Recruitment Chair – an alumna (graduate) acting as the central source for References and Letters for the hometown.

Reference – A form completed by an alumnae recommending a particular student for membership. Most national sororities require References in order to extend an invitation to join. Also known as a Recommendation (REC).

Ritual – The traditional beliefs and oaths of a sorority or fraternity usually used in reference to the Ceremonies of Initiation as well as weekly chapter meetings.

Rush – previous term for Recruitment.

Rushee – Previous term for a potential new member.

Sister – An initiated member of a sorority.

Sorority – An individual woman's Greek organization. This is the term commonly used to distinguish between men's (fraternity) and woman's (sorority) organizations.

Greek Alphabet

A	ALPHA (al-fah)
B	BETA (bay-tah)
G	GAMMA (gam-ah)
D	DELTA (del-tah)
E	EPSILON (ep-si-lon)
Z	ZETA (zay-tah)
H	ETA (ay-tah)
Q	THETA (thay-tah)
I	IOTA (eye-o-tah)
K	KAPPA (kap-pah)
L	LAMBDA (lam-dah)
M	MU (mew)
N	NU (new)
X	XI (zie)
O	OMICRON (om-i-cron)
P	PI (pie)
R	RHO (roe)
S	SIGMA (sig-mah)
T	TAU (taw)
U	UPSILON (oop-si-lon)
F	PHI (fie)
C	CHI (kie)
Y	PSI (sie)
W	OMEGA (o-may-gah)