Sister Definition & Meaning

American

British

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Examples

Related Words

Synonyms sister American [sis-ter] / ˈsɪs tər /

noun

1. a female offspring having both parents in common with another offspring; female sibling.

2. Also called half sister. a female offspring having only one parent in common with another offspring.

3. stepsister.

4. a female friend or protector regarded as a sister.

5. a thing regarded as feminine and associated as if by kinship with something else.

   The ships are sisters.

6. a female fellow member, as of a church.

7. a female member of a religious community that observes the simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

8. British. a nurse in charge of a hospital ward; head nurse.

9. Informal. a term used to refer to or address a fellow Black woman; soul sister.

10. a woman who supports, promotes, or participates in feminism.

11. Informal. a form of address used to a woman or girl, especially jocularly or contemptuously.

    Listen, sister, you've had enough.

adjective

1. being or considered a sister; related by or as if by sisterhood.

   sister ships.

2. having a close relationship with another because of shared interests, problems, or the like.

   We correspond with school children in our sister city.

3. Biochemistry. being one of an identical pair.

sister British / ˈsɪstə /

noun

1. a female person having the same parents as another person

2. See half-sister stepsister

3. a female person who belongs to the same group, trade union, etc, as another or others

4. informal a form of address to a woman or girl, used esp by Black people in the US

5. a senior nurse

6. RC Church a nun or a title given to a nun

7. a woman fellow member of a Church or religious body

8. (modifier) belonging to the same class, fleet, etc, as another or others

   a sister ship

9. (modifier) biology denoting any of the cells or cell components formed by division of a parent cell or cell component

   sister nuclei

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

• nonsister noun
• sisterless adjective
• sisterlike adjective

Etymology

Origin of sister

First recorded before 900; Middle English (noun) from Old Norse systir; cognate with Old English sweoster, Dutch zuster, German Schwester, Gothic swistar; akin to Serbo-Croatian sèstra, Lithuanian sesuõ, Latin soror (from unattested swesor ), Old Irish siur, Welsh chwaer, Sanskrit svasar “sister,” Greek éor “daughter, niece”

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"My sister moved to Dubai a few years ago and my parents have decided to move too, so it just makes sense," she says.

From BBC

Born Sept. 28, 1934, in Paris, the daughter of a Parisian factory owner and his socialite wife, Bardot and her younger sister were raised in a religious Catholic home.

From Los Angeles Times

Earlier this year, Maddie and her husband welcomed Teddy's little sister Emilia - or Emmie as she's known - after a pregnancy where she felt "so excited but so terrified".

From BBC

She and her sister, Marie-Jeanne, grew up in a luxurious apartment in the plushest district of the city.

From BBC

The five identical sisters, born in Ontario at the height of the Great Depression in 1934, were the first known quintuplets to survive past infancy.

From BBC

Related Words

• relative
• twin

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.