Definition of 'sister'
Word forms: plural sisters
1. countable noun [oft poss N]
2. See also half sister, stepsister
3. countable noun & title noun & vocative noun
4. countable noun
You can describe a woman as your sister if you feel a connection with her, for example, because she belongs to the same race,
religion, country, or profession.
5. adjective [ADJ n]
You can use sister to describe something that is of the same type or is connected in some way to another
thing you have mentioned. For example, if a company has a sister company, they are connected.
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
British English pronunciation
American English pronunciation
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Word Frequency
sister in American English
noun
1.
a woman or girl as she is related to the other children of her parents
sometimes also used of animals3.
a stepsister
4.
a foster sister
6.
a female fellow member of the same race, church, profession, organization, etc.
sorority sister, soul sister
8.
10. Informal
any woman
often used as a familiar term of address adjective
11.
related or seeming to be related as sisters
Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition. Copyright © 2010 by
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
Word origin
ME < ON systir (akin to OE sweoster > dial. suster), akin to Ger schwester < IE *swesor-, sister (> Sans svasar, L soror, OIr siur) < *sewe-, (one's) own, refl. pron. (see suicide) + *sor-, woman: hence, lit., woman of our (family)
Word Frequency
sister in American English
(ˈsɪstər)
noun
2. Also called: half sister
a female offspring having only one parent in common with another offspring
3.
stepsister
5.
The ships are sisters
6.
a female fellow member, as of a church
7.
9.
a fellow Black woman
10.
11. informal
a form of address used to a woman or girl, esp. jocularly or contemptuously
Listen, sister, you've had enough
adjective
13.
We correspond with school children in our sister city
Most material © 2005, 1997, 1991 by Penguin Random House LLC. Modified entries © 2019
by Penguin Random House LLC and HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Derived forms
sisterless adjective
sisterlike
adjective
Word origin
[bef. 900; ME (n.) ‹ ON systir; c. OE sweoster, D zuster, G Schwester, Goth swistar; akin to Serbo-Croatian sèstra, Lith sesuõ, L soror (‹ *swesor), OIr siur, Welsh chwaer, Skt svasar sister, Gk éor daughter, niece]Word Frequency
sister in British English
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Word origin
Old English sweostor; related to Old Norse systir, Old High German swester, Gothic swistarExamples of 'sister' in a sentence
sister
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sister
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In other languages
sister
British English: sister
/ˈsɪstə/ NOUN
Your sister is a girl or woman who has the same parents as you.
My sister is younger than me.
- American English: sister /ˈsɪstər/
- Arabic: أُخْت
- Brazilian Portuguese: irmã
- Chinese: 姐妹 older sister
- Croatian: sestra
- Czech: sestra
- Danish: søster
- Dutch: zus
- European Spanish: hermana
- Finnish: sisar
- French: sœur
- German: Schwester
- Greek: αδελφή
- Italian: sorella
- Japanese: 姉妹
- Korean: 언니 female’s elder sister
- Norwegian: søster
- Polish: siostra
- European Portuguese: irmã
- Romanian: soră
- Russian: сестра
- Spanish: hermana
- Swedish: syster
- Thai: พี่สาวหรือน้องสาว
- Turkish: kız kardeş
- Ukrainian: сестра
- Vietnamese: em gái younger sister
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sister
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sister
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Definition of sister from the Collins English Dictionary
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