stepsister
Americannoun
-
stepsisters
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of stepsister
late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50; see origin at step-, sister
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
My stepsister said, “Oh, that was a long time ago, before my dad passed, and it was his idea,” but her dad died almost six months ago.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 13, 2026
Hahn: It’s interesting, Mark, because I’ve always felt kind of like basically just invited to the party, so I always have felt like the messy stepsister on the outside looking in.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2025
What I found in this fairy tale is that the stepsister is the most relatable character and has been for thousands of years.
From Salon ● Apr. 18, 2025
Baena's surviving family includes his mother Barbara Stern and stepfather Roger Stern; father Scott and stepmother Michele Baena; brother Brad Baena; stepsister Bianca Gabay and stepbrother Jed Fluxman.
From BBC ● Jan. 7, 2025
Her stepsister sounded carefully nonchalant about it, and Ash did not press her for further details.
From "Ash" by Malinda Lo
They were stepsisters who hadn’t seen each other since they were little girls.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
Despite the family's efforts to protect them, her younger stepsisters found out that their father and mother were trapped under the rubble from other children at school.
From BBC ● Apr. 9, 2025
For a time, the two guitarists were family: He married one of Hendrix’s stepsisters, Marsha Jinka, in 1962, although they had separated by the time Hendrix died in 1970 at 27.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 28, 2022
Men occasionally dance female roles in classical ballet, but only for humorous effect, like the stepsisters in Frederick Ashton’s “Cinderella.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 19, 2022
Ash almost missed her visit entirely, because she had been forced to go into Rook Hill with her stepmother and stepsisters.
From "Ash" by Malinda Lo
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
