sister

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“
I had three brothers and a sister, and my sister was the shortest of the five of us.

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Definitions (40)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (15)

  1. noun A female having the same parents as another or one parent in common with another.
  2. noun A girl or woman who shares a common ancestry, allegiance, character, or purpose with another or others, specifically:
  3. noun A kinswoman.
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Examples (50)

  • Buddy Baldwin and his sister were along The planes picked them up, ignoring the bullets which Monk and Ham were dropping around the craft with rifles which they had picked up in the cabin. —  056 - The Deadly Dwarf
  • Aunt Mary said, in her own characteristic way, "she always knew that her sister was a clever woman, but that the cleverest thing she had done was taking up farming and carrying it on for 30 years when it was profitable, and turning it over when it began to fall off." —  An Autobiography
  • Similarly, in “Cymbeline,” the joy of the brothers in finding the sister is an echo of his own pleasure in getting to know his daughter. —  The Man Shakespeare
  • A rather diverting story in which his sister was the heroine may be worth telling, if only because it was so characteristic of the period. —  The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent
  • The king gave a theatrical entertainment in honour of their arrival, at which his sister was the only female performer. —  The Life of Captain James Cook
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old Norse systir; see swesor- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English sister, sistir, syster, soster, suster, sustre, zuster, zoster (plural sistris, sistren, sustren, sostren), from Anglo-Saxon sweostor, swustor =Old Saxon swestar =OFries. swester, suster =Middle Dutch suster, D zuster (diminutive zusje) =Middle Low German suster =Old High German swester, Middle High German swester, suester, suister, German schwester =Icelandic systir =Swedish syster =Danish söster =Gothic (Moesogothic) swistar (Teutonic *swestar, with unorig. t) =Russian Bohemian sestra =Polish siostra =Lithuanian sesů (for *swesô) (genitive sesers) =L. soror (for older *sosor) (from Italian sorore (sorella) =Spanish sor =Portuguese sor, soror =Provencal sor, seror =Old French sorur, serour, suer, seur, sœur, French sœur), sister, =Sanskrit svasar, sister; origin unknown. Cf. brother, father, mother. From the L. soror, through consobrinus, is ult. English cousin.
 

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/ˈsɪstər/
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