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Secondary fraternities, or high school fraternities, are social fraternities for high school-aged men. Most secondary fraternities, like their college counterparts, have Greek-letter names. Although there were countless local secondary fraternities with only one or two chapters, many secondary fraternities founded in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries grew into national organizations with a highly evolved governing structure and regularly chartered chapters in multiple states. Most of the local chapters of these national fraternities were not tied to (or affiliated with) individual high schools but were instead "city chapters," often drawing membership from multiple high schools in a given area.

Secondary fraternities were most certainly inspired by, and were closely modeled after, the Greek-letter fraternities which became prevalent in North American colleges and universities during the nineteenth century. Most of the national secondary fraternities that were successful in the twentieth century had national governing body, produced regual publications and convened in regular (often annual) national conventions. They also possessed a secret ritual and grip and a Greek-letter name which, like college fraternities, was derived from the abbreviation of a secret Greek motto. These groups were identified by a coat-of-arms and members wore distinctive fraternity badges, or pins.

Some of the more successful secondary fraternities included Delta Sigma (ΔΣ), Gamma Delta Psi (ΓΔΨ), Phi Kappa (ΦΚ), Phi Sigma Chi (ΦΣΧ), Phi Sigma Epsilon (ΦΣΕ), Sigma Phi Omega (ΣΦΩ) and Theta Kappa Omega (ΘΚΩ). All of these once-powerful national groups have been splintered, forcibly disbanded or have simply died from lack of participation in recent years. This is due largely to declining membership numbers, lack of alumni interest and the affects of the negative press and reputation that the groups have garnered for mismanagemement, hazing and alcohol abuse. In a contingent fashion, these factors have contributed, almost across the board, to the enactment and enforcement, on the local and state levels, of anti-fraternity legislation aimed at dismantling secondary fraternities. Today, remnants of these groups may survive in isolated pockets operating largely in secret, but the once-high profile national organizations have now all folded.