sis
/sɪs/noun
sis is spelled S-I-S: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.3 times per million words in written English, the 12,397th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, sis means “Clipping of sister” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sis is sises or sisses.
How many letters and syllables are in sis?
| Letters | 3: S-I-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.3 times per million words; the 12,397th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is sis?
Sis appears 4.3 times per million words in written English, the 12,397th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce sis?
- /sɪs/
Sis has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-sis.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with sis
Sounds like: cis (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of sis
- sises plural
- sisses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sis mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
informalClipping of sister.
big sis
- 2
Pronunciation spelling of six
noun
- 1
Initialism of second impact syndrome.
- 2
Initialism of snow immersion suffocation.
- 3
Initialism of student information system.
- 4
Initialism of supervised injection site.
- 5
Acronym of share-in-savings.
- 6
Abbreviation of supplementary international search.
noun
- 1
plural of SI
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sis in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense sister:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | frangine, sœurette |
| German | Schwesterchen |
| Portuguese | irmãzinha, maninha |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does sis come from?
Ultimately from Ancient Greek -σις (-sis, “forms noun of action”), often via Latin or French. Identical in meaning with Latin -entia, English -ing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).