sister-in-law
/ˈsɪs.tɚ.ɪn.lɔ/
"sister-in-law" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sister-in-law” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A female relative of one's generation, separated by one degree of marriage:
Corpus desk
Index EN-sister-in-law · sister-in-law · English
sister-in-law · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sister-in-law |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɪs.tɚ.ɪn.lɔ/ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sister-in-law” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sister-in-law is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈsɪs.tɚ.ɪn.lɔ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
sister-in-law has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English suster-in-lawe; equivalent to sister + -in-law. The correct English form is sister-in-law, spelled S-I-S-T-E-R---I-N---L-A-W.
Definition
- 1A female relative of one's generation, separated by one degree of marriage:
- 2A female relative of one's generation, separated by one degree of marriage:
- 3Co-sister-in-law: The wife of one's sibling-in-law.
- 4Co-sister-in-law: The wife of one's sibling-in-law.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sister-in-law appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Though they are not twins, my sister-in-law resembles my wife in almost every way.
My sister-in-law and my brother met while they were both on vacation in Jamaica.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English suster-in-lawe; equivalent to sister + -in-law.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.