noun

sister

SIHS-tuh

noun

A female sibling; a daughter sharing the same parents as another person.

"My sister lives just a few streets away."

A woman felt to be closely bonded with another through shared identity, cause, or community.

"The activists referred to each other as sisters in the movement."

(UK) A senior nurse, often in charge of a hospital ward.

"The sister on duty checked all the patients' charts."

A woman belonging to a religious order; a nun.

"Sister Mary ran the small parish school."

How to Use Sister

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishA female sibling, or by extension a woman treated with sibling-like closeness or respect.

UK vs US

In British English, "sister" is also a hospital job title for a senior nurse — this sense is far less common in American English.

Common pairings

big sister little sister sister ward

Word Forms

sistered past tense, sisters plural, sistren plural, Sisters plural, sisters singular

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Fill the Gap

Can you complete this real example?

My _____ lives just a few streets away.

Etymology

From Old English sweostor, from Proto-Germanic *swestēr, ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root for "sister" — one of the oldest and most widely shared words in Indo-European languages.

Rhymes for sister

lister mister twister meister blister keister minister sinister register magister cloister banister

See all rhymes for sister →