# sister

Pronunciation: US say "SIS-tur" /ˈsɪs.tɚ/; UK say "SIS-tuh" /ˈsɪs.tə(ɹ)/

## Noun

1. A female sibling: a girl or woman who shares one or both parents with another person.
   - Simple: A girl or woman who has one or both of the same parents as you.
   - _Her sister flew in from Chicago for the wedding._
   - _The two sisters ran the family bakery together._
2. Something closely related to another of the same kind, as an equal partner or near match, as in sister city or sister ship.
   - Simple: A thing of the same kind that is closely linked to another, like a sister city or sister company.
   - _The festival was planned with help from our sister city in northern Italy._
   - _Our sister company in Ohio handles all the shipping._
3. A woman or girl regarded as sharing a bond with others through gender, race, or membership in a community, profession, faith, or movement.
   - Simple: A woman or girl linked to others by shared gender, race, beliefs, work, or community.
   - _Every woman who has fought for equal pay is my sister in this struggle._
   - _The activists addressed one another as sisters throughout the campaign._
4. A woman who is a member of a religious order, especially one devoted to active service; informally, a nun.
   - Simple: A woman who belongs to a religious order, often one that does active service.
   - _A sister from the local order ran the soup kitchen._
   - _The sisters cared for orphans throughout the region._
5. A casual or familiar term used when speaking directly to a woman. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: An informal word used when speaking directly to a woman.
   - _Slow down, sister, nobody's chasing you._
   - _You said it, sister. That movie was a waste of time._
6. A senior or supervisory nurse, often in charge of a hospital ward. *(British)*
   - Simple: A senior nurse who supervises the others, usually on a hospital ward.
   - _The sister reviewed the charts and reassigned the junior nurses._
   - _On the surgical ward, the sister coordinated admissions all morning._

## Verb

7. To brace a load-bearing beam by attaching a second beam along its length.
   - Simple: To make a beam stronger by attaching a second beam beside it.
   - _The contractor sistered each sagging rafter before laying the new roof._
   - _They decided to sister the floor joists rather than replace them._

## Verb

8. To stand in the relation of a sister to; to closely resemble another thing. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To be like a sister to something, or to look very much like it.

## Other meanings

- (noun) One of two or more nodes with the same parent in a data structure.
- (noun) One of two tornadoes that form close together at nearly the same time or in quick succession.
- (noun) A butterfly of the genus Adelpha, found from the southern United States to South America.

## Origin

This word comes from Middle English 'sister' or 'suster', from Old English 'swustor' or 'sweostor', which trace back to Proto-Germanic *swestēr and ultimately Proto-Indo-European *swésōr, all meaning 'sister'. It is related to German 'Schwester', Dutch 'zuster', and Latin 'soror', and the modern 'i' spelling is due to influence from Old Norse 'systir'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/sister (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).