sister

Meaning

Noun

1. A daughter of the same parents as another person; a female sibling.
2. A female member of a religious order; especially one devoted to more active service; (informal) a nun.
3. Any butterfly in the genus Adelpha, so named for the resemblance of the dark-colored wings to the black habit traditionally worn by nuns.
4. (British) A senior or supervisory nurse, often in a hospital.
5. 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.
6. (capitalized, slang, sometimes) A black woman.
7. (informal) A form of address to a woman.
8. A female fellow member of a religious community, church, trades union etc.
9. (attributive) An entity that has a special or affectionate, non-hierarchical relationship with another.
10. A node in a data structure that shares its parent with another node.
11. (attributive, usually) Something in the same class.
12. One of two tornados that form in close proximity at the same time or in quick succession.

Verb

1. (transitive) To strengthen (a supporting beam) by fastening a second beam alongside it.
2. (obsolete, transitive) To be sister to; to resemble closely.

Opposite of

brother

Synonyms

brother

👨‍👦

sibling

nun

older sister

younger sister

younger

older

cousin

sis

your brother

nurse

female sibling

friend

relative

elder sister

female cousin

aunt

baby

👶

family

👪

head nurse

madam

sisters

parallel cousin

religious woman

babe

female friend

let us go

Miss

Sister

👩‍👧

wife’s brother

boy’s older sister

head-nurse

sister of charity

catholic nun

younger person

nun1

my brother

charge nurse

our brother

in-step

נ

sistergirl

subsidiary

abbess

affiliate

anchorite

big sister

branch

brother-in-law

brothers and sisters

Translations

sœur

👩‍👧

Schwester

👩‍👧

hermana

👩‍👧

sorella

👩‍👧

zuster

👩‍👧

irmã

👩‍👧

germana

👩‍👧

soeur

αδελφή

zus

👩‍👧

soror

👩‍👧

frère

👨‍👦

أخت

👩‍👧

hermano

👨‍👦

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈsɪs.tə(ɹ)/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: sister

Inherited from Old English: swustor

Cognate with Scots: sister

Cognate with Western Frisian: sus

Cognate with Dutch: zuster

Cognate with German: Schwester

Cognate with Norwegian Bokmål: søster

Cognate with Norwegian Nynorsk: -

Cognate with Swedish: syster

Cognate with Icelandic: systir

Cognate with Gothic: 𐍃𐍅𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌰𐍂

Cognate with Latin: soror

Cognate with Russian: сестра́

Cognate with Lithuanian: sesuo

Cognate with Albanian: vajzë

Cognate with Sanskrit: स्वसृ

Cognate with Persian: خواهر

Cognate with Old Norse: systir

Inherited from Middle English: sistren

In summary

PIE word
*swésōr
From Middle English sister, suster, from Old English swustor, sweoster, sweostor (“sister, nun”); from Proto-Germanic *swestēr (“sister”), from Proto-Indo-European *swésōr (“sister”).
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”).

Sentences

She was raised by her widowed mother and an older sister .

Jim Broadbent had a twin sister who died at birth .

I've always looked on Bessie as my own sister .

She is the sister of Isis and companion of the war-like deity , Set .

She and her sister Victoire were the first two Congolese women parachutists .

His sister is Ooberman keyboardist and vocalist Sophia Churney.