Active: The exact meaning of this term varies from group to group, but generally it means an undergraduate who currently pays dues and participates in chapter events.

Alumni/alumnae:  The plurals of alumnus and alumna, respectively. When both men and women are meant, alumni is the term most often used.

Bid:  An invitation to join a Greek organization.

Big Brother/Big Sister:  An initiated member of an organization paired with an uninitiated member to help them through the member education period. Often referred to as a 'Big'.

Chapter:  A membership unit of a national or international Greek organization.

Colony:  A group petitioning to form a new chapter.

Continuous Open Bidding (COB):  Process of extending bids on an individual basis that begins immediately following Formal Recruitment.

Dry:  alcohol-free.

Formal Recruitment:  A designated membership recruitment period during which a series of organized events are held by each NPC sorority; membership recruitment is organized and implemented by the Panhellenic Council.

Fraternity:  A Greek-letter sisterhood or brotherhood

Greek Week:  A week in the spring semester (generally the last week of April) when all campus Greek organizations celebrate the positive aspects of Greek life, through games, community service projects, and other activities.

Informal recruitment:  A continuous, open recruitment period with no specific activities of recruiting and pledging.

Initiation:  A ritualistic ceremony during which new members receive lifelong membership privileges.

Inter-fraternity Council (IFC):  The governing council for men's fraternities. All fraternity chapters whose national organizations belong to the North-American Interfraternity Conference are members, as well as all national men's groups.

Legacy:  A person whose mother, father, sister, or brother (and for some organizations grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, or cousin) is an alumnus/alumna or active member of a sorority or fraternity.

National Panhellenic Conference (NPC):  NPC is a conference body composed of 26 national women's fraternities, each of which is autonomous as a social, Greek-letter society of college women, undergraduates, and alumnae.

New member period:  The time between the acceptance of a bid and initiation. Chapters generally take this time to educate their new members in the organization's history and traditions.

New Member:  Someone who has accepted a bid to join a Greek organization but is not yet an initiated member.

Party:  A Formal Recruitment Party is a time when potential new members are able to meet the members and learn about an individual sorority.

Philanthropy:  Charitable projects, events, or donations.

Pin: The use of this term varies from group to group. It can mean the same thing as a badge. It can also mean a symbol worn by a new member until their initiation.

Pledge:  An older term for new member.

Potential New Member (PNM):  A woman registered to participate in Fall Sorority Recruitment who has met all NPC and requirements for membership.

Preferential Bidding:  A system used at the conclusion of Fall Sorority Recruitment to match sorority and potential new member preferences.

Quota:  The number of women that each sorority can extend a bid to at the conclusion of Fall Sorority Recruitment.

Recruitment:  A series of events offering members and potential members the opportunity to get to know each other.

Rho Gamma (Recruitment Guide):  A Panhellenic representative who has no contact with her own chapter during a period surrounding Fall Sorority Recruitment and is appointed to assist and counsel potential new members through recruitment.

Ritual:  The secret traditions that ties together the beliefs and standards of a sorority or fraternity.

Rush:  An older term for recruitment that is no longer used. Replaced with Recruitment.

Sorority:  A Greek-letter sisterhood (also may be called a fraternity).