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PlainSpell

sister

sis·ter/ˈsɪs.tɚ/noun, verb

sister is spelled S-I-S-T-E-R: 6 letters and 2 syllables (sis·ter). It appears 89 times per million words in written English, the 1,191st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, sister means “A daughter of the same parents as another person; a female sibling” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sister is sisters; Wiktionary also lists sistren (archaic).

How many letters and syllables are in sister?

Letters6: S-I-S-T-E-R
Syllables2: sis·ter
In writing89 times per million words; the 1,191st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is sister?

Sister appears 89 times per million words in written English, the 1,191st 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 sister?

  • UK /ˈsɪs.tə(ɹ)/
  • US /ˈsɪs.tɚ/

Sister has 2 syllables, split sis·ter in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-sister.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-sister.wav, En-us-sister.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with sister

Sounds like: cister, cyster (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with sister?

6 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as sister from its last stressed vowel (/ɪstəɹ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: resist.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of sister

  • sisters plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • sistering participle, present
  • sistered participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does sister mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

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

    My sister is always driving me crazy.

  2. 2

    A female member of a religious order; especially one devoted to more active service; (informal) a nun.

    Michelle left behind her bank job and became a sister at the local convent.

  3. 3

    Any butterfly in the genus Adelpha, so named for the resemblance of the dark-colored wings to the black habit traditionally worn by nuns.

  4. 4

    UKA senior or supervisory nurse, often in a hospital.

  5. 5

    Any woman or girl with whom a bond is felt through the same biological sex, gender or common membership in a community, race, profession, religion, organization, or ism.

    Connie was very close to her friend Judy and considered her to be her sister.

  6. 6

    slangA black woman.

  7. 7

    informalA form of address to a woman.

    What’s up, sister?

  8. 8

    A female fellow member of a religious community, church, trades union etc.

    Thank you, sister. I would like to thank the sister who just spoke.

verb

  1. 1

    To strengthen (a supporting beam) by fastening a second beam alongside it.

    I’m trying to correct my sagging floor by sistering the joists.

  2. 2

    obsoleteTo be sister to; to resemble closely.

noun

as Sister
  1. 1

    Title of respect for an adult female member of a religious order.

    At the convent, Sister Grace supervises the kitchen.

  2. 2

    Title of respect for an adult female member of a fraternal/sororal organization, or comrade in a movement, or even a stranger using fictive kin.

  3. 3

    A title used to personify or respectfully refer to concepts or animals.

    Native American leader Chief Seattle urged ecological responsibility, referring to Brother Eagle and Sister Sky in his purported 1854 speech.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate sister?

Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of sister: Sr, sis.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Sister in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsœur (woman or girl having the same parents), nonne, religieuse, bonne sœur (a nun; a female member of a religious community), infirmière (senior nurse)
GermanSchwester, Schwöschter (woman or girl having the same parents), Nonne (a nun; a female member of a religious community), Krankenschwester (senior nurse), aufdoppeln, verstärken (strengthen by fastening a second beam alongside)
Portugueseirmã (woman or girl having the same parents), soror (a nun; a female member of a religious community), enfermeira (senior nurse)
Spanishhermana (woman or girl having the same parents), sor (a nun; a female member of a religious community), hermano (attributively: of an entity that has a special…)

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 sister come from?

Inherited from Middle English suster, from Old English sweostor, from Proto-West Germanic *swester, from Proto-Germanic *swestēr, from Proto-Indo-European *swésōr. Doublet of soror.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after sister