sister.
A daughter of the same parents as another person; a female sibling.
Meaning & usage
A daughter of the same parents as another person; a female sibling.
My sister is always driving me crazy.
A female member of a religious order; especially one devoted to more active service; (informal) a nun.
Michelle left behind her bank job and became a sister at the local convent.
Any butterfly in the genus Adelpha, so named for the resemblance of the dark-colored wings to the black habit traditionally worn by nuns.
A senior or supervisory nurse, often in a hospital.
Any woman or girl with whom a bond is felt through the same biological sex, gender or common membership in a community, race, profession, religion, organization, or ism.
Connie was very close to her friend Judy and considered her to be her sister.
A black woman.
A form of address to a woman.
What’s up, sister?
A female fellow member of a religious community, church, trades union etc.
Thank you, sister. I would like to thank the sister who just spoke.
An entity that has a special or affectionate, non-hierarchical relationship with another.
sister publication
sister city
A node in a data structure that shares its parent with another node.
Something in the same class.
sister ships
sister facility
One of two tornados that form in close proximity at the same time or in quick succession.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *swé Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésh₂r̥ Proto-Indo-European *su-h₁ésh₂-ōr? Proto-Indo-European *swé Proto-Indo-European *-sōr ? Proto-Indo-European *swésōrder. Proto-Germanic *swestēr Proto-West Germanic *swester Old English sweostor Middle English suster English sister Inherited from Middle English suster, from Old English sweostor, from Proto-West Germanic *swester, from Proto-Germanic *swestēr, from Proto-Indo-European *swésōr. Doublet of soror. Cognate with Scots sister, syster (“sister”), West Frisian sus, suster (“sister”), Dutch zuster (“sister”), German Schwester (“sister”), Norwegian Bokmål søster (“sister”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish syster (“sister”), Icelandic systir (“sister”), Gothic 𐍃𐍅𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌰𐍂 (swistar, “sister”), Latin soror (“sister”), Russian сестра́ (sestrá, “sister”), Lithuanian sesuo (“sister”), Albanian vajzë (“girl, maiden”), Sanskrit स्वसृ (svásṛ, “sister”), Persian خواهر (xâhar, “sister”). In standard English, the form with i is due to contamination with Old Norse systir (“sister”). The plural sistren is from Middle English sistren, a variant plural of sister, suster (“sister”); compare brethren. The sense for "Adelpha-genus butterfly" is a semantic loan from translingual Adelpha, itself from Ancient Greek ἀδελφή (adelphḗ, “sister”).
To strengthen (a supporting beam) by fastening a second beam alongside it.
I’m trying to correct my sagging floor by sistering the joists.
To be sister to; to resemble closely.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *swé Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésh₂r̥ Proto-Indo-European *su-h₁ésh₂-ōr? Proto-Indo-European *swé Proto-Indo-European *-sōr ? Proto-Indo-European *swésōrder. Proto-Germanic *swestēr Proto-West Germanic *swester Old English sweostor Middle English suster English sister Inherited from Middle English suster, from Old English sweostor, from Proto-West Germanic *swester, from Proto-Germanic *swestēr, from Proto-Indo-European *swésōr. Doublet of soror. Cognate with Scots sister, syster (“sister”), West Frisian sus, suster (“sister”), Dutch zuster (“sister”), German Schwester (“sister”), Norwegian Bokmål søster (“sister”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish syster (“sister”), Icelandic systir (“sister”), Gothic 𐍃𐍅𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌰𐍂 (swistar, “sister”), Latin soror (“sister”), Russian сестра́ (sestrá, “sister”), Lithuanian sesuo (“sister”), Albanian vajzë (“girl, maiden”), Sanskrit स्वसृ (svásṛ, “sister”), Persian خواهر (xâhar, “sister”). In standard English, the form with i is due to contamination with Old Norse systir (“sister”). The plural sistren is from Middle English sistren, a variant plural of sister, suster (“sister”); compare brethren. The sense for "Adelpha-genus butterfly" is a semantic loan from translingual Adelpha, itself from Ancient Greek ἀδελφή (adelphḗ, “sister”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.