sis·ter

[sis-ter]
noun
1.
a female offspring having both parents in common with another offspring; female sibling.
2.
Also called half sister. a female offspring having only one parent in common with another offspring.
3.
stepsister.
4.
a female friend or protector regarded as a sister.
5.
a thing regarded as feminine and associated as if by kinship with something else: The ships are sisters.
6.
a female fellow member, as of a church.
7.
a female member of a religious community that observes the simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
8.
British. a nurse in charge of a hospital ward; head nurse.
9.
a fellow black woman.
10.
a woman who supports, promotes, or participates in feminism.
11.
Informal. a form of address used to a woman or girl, especially jocularly or contemptuously: Listen, sister, you've had enough.
adjective
12.
being or considered a sister; related by or as if by sisterhood: sister ships.
13.
having a close relationship with another because of shared interests, problems, or the like: We correspond with school children in our sister city.
14.
Biochemistry. being one of an identical pair.
00:10
Sister is always a great word to know.
So is bezoar. Does it mean:
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.
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Origin:
before 900; Middle English (noun) < Old Norse systir; cognate with Old English sweoster, Dutch zuster, German Schwester, Gothic swistar; akin to Serbo-Croatian sèstra, Lithuanian sesuõ, Latin soror (< *swesor), Old Irish siur, Welsh chwaer, Sanskrit svasar sister, Greek éor daughter, niece

Related forms
sis·ter·less, adjective
sis·ter·like, adjective
non·sis·ter, noun, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source Link To sister
Collins
World English Dictionary
sister (ˈsɪstə) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
—n
1.  a female person having the same parents as another person
2.  half-sister See stepsister
3.  a female person who belongs to the same group, trade union, etc, as another or others
4.  informal a form of address to a woman or girl, used esp by Black people in the US
5.  a senior nurse
6.  chiefly RC Church a nun or a title given to a nun
7.  a woman fellow member of a Church or religious body
8.  (modifier) belonging to the same class, fleet, etc, as another or others: a sister ship
9.  (modifier) biology denoting any of the cells or cell components formed by division of a parent cell or cell component: sister nuclei
 
[Old English sweostor; related to Old Norse systir, Old High German swester, Gothic swistar]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

sister
O.E. sweostor, swuster, or a Scand. cognate (cf. O.N. systir, Swed. sister, Dan. søster), in either case from P.Gmc. *swestr- (cf. O.S. swestar, O.Fris. swester, M.Du. suster, Du. zuster, O.H.G. swester, Ger. Schwester, Goth. swistar), from PIE *swesor, one of the most persistent and unchanging
PIE root words, recognizable in almost every modern I.E. language (cf. Skt. svasar-, Avestan shanhar-, L. soror, O.C.S., Rus. sestra, Lith. sesuo, O.Ir. siur, Welsh chwaer, Gk. eor). Probably from PIE roots *swe- "one's own" + *ser- "woman." For vowel evolution, see bury. Used of nuns in O.E.; of a woman in general from 1906; of a black woman from 1926; and in the sense of "fellow feminist" from 1912.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

sister definition


  1. n.
    a (female) friend. (Originally underworld. Sometimes a term of address.) : Come here, sister. I gotta have a word with you.
  2. n.
    a fellow sorority member. : One of my sisters let me borrow her car.
  3. n.
    a fellow feminist. : We can do this thing, sisters, we can do it!

  4. Go to (soul) sister. :
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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(soul) sister definition


  1. n.
    a black person's female, black friend. (See also sister.) : One of the soul sisters dropped by to talk.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Example sentences
For example, my sister sings opera, and she's really good.
Maybe everyone else felt as if they were sharing in my sister and new
  brother-in-law's happiness and not somehow intruding on it.
Propping is similar to tunnelling, and means that unviable units get financial
  support from sister companies.
One guy would go down, then his sister or his brother.
Image for sister
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