sis·ter
(sĭs′tər)n.1. A female having the same parents as another or one parent in common with another.
2. A girl or woman who shares a common ancestry, allegiance, character, or purpose with another or others, specifically:
a. A kinswoman.
b. A woman fellow member, as of a sorority.
c. A fellow woman.
d. A close woman friend or companion.
e. A fellow African-American woman or girl.
f. A woman who advocates, fosters, or takes part in the feminist movement.
3. Informal Used as a form of address for a woman or girl.
4. Abbr. Sr. Ecclesiastical a. A member of a religious order of women; a nun.
b. Used as a form of address for such a woman, alone or followed by the woman's name.
5. Chiefly British A nurse, especially the head nurse in a ward.
6. One identified as female and closely related to another: "the sisters Death and Night" (Walt Whitman).
7. Architecture A beam or other structural member affixed to another as a supplementary support.
adj.1. Related by or as if by sisterhood; closely related: sister ships; sister cities.
2. Genetics Of or being one of an identical, related, or homologous pair: sister chromatids.
tr.v. sis·tered,
sis·ter·ing,
sis·ters Architecture To affix a beam or other structural member to (another) as a supplementary support.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
sister
(ˈsɪstə) n1. a female person having the same parents as another person
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. (Medicine) a senior nurse
6. (Ecclesiastical Terms) chiefly RC Church a nun or a title given to a nun
7. (Ecclesiastical Terms) 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. (Biology) (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 and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
sis•ter
(ˈsɪs tər)
n. 1. a female offspring having both parents in common with another offspring; female sibling.
4. a sister-in-law.
5. a woman or girl numbered in the same kinship group, nationality, race, church membership, society, etc., as another.
6. a thing regarded as female and associated as if by kinship with something else: The ships are sisters.
7. a. a woman member of a religious order whose vows are not as absolute as a nun's.
b. (used as a title for a sister or a nun.)
8. Brit. a nurse in charge of a hospital ward; head nurse.
9. a form of address used to a woman or girl, esp. jocularly or contemptuously.
adj. 10. being or considered a sister; related by or as if by sisterhood.
11. being in close relationship with another: our sister city across the river.
12. being one of an identical pair.
[before 900; < Old Norse systir, c. Old English sweoster, Old Frisian, Old High German swester, Gothic swistar; akin to Latin soror (<*swesor), Old Irish siur, Skt svasar sister, Greek éor daughter, niece]
sis′ter•less, adj.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.