sibling
Americannoun
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a brother or sister.
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Anthropology. a comember of a sib, a unilateral descent group thought to share kinship through a common ancestor.
adjective
noun
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a person's brother or sister
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( as modifier )
sibling rivalry
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any fellow member of a sib
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of sibling
before 1000; late Middle English: relative, Old English; see sib, -ling 1
Explanation
A sibling is your brother or sister. It's that simple. The word sibling once meant anyone who is related to you, but now it's reserved for children of the same parent or parents. It is a word that was once out of use but then brought back into English in the early 1900s as a useful word in anthropology. If you and your brother fight all of the time, your parents might call it sibling rivalry. You might just call him annoying and run from the room.
Vocabulary lists containing sibling
It's All in the Family
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Unit 3: Compelling Evidence
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Unit 2: Pivotal Words and Phrases
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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.
A brother stays in Taiwan, vowing to solve the murder; he gets a job in the food-processing plant where his sibling worked—then drops out of sight.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026
What El Niño and its colder sibling pattern don’t affect, however, are “atmospheric rivers,” which can carry tremendous amounts of precipitation to California from the tropics, Ralph said.
From Los Angeles Times • May 14, 2026
Ward also reported there was, at the time, some very serious sibling rivalry between Ivanka and her Don Jr. on the subject.
From Salon • May 3, 2026
Ultimately, the sibling dispute and the subsequent lawsuit may have brought home the benefits of having a clear line of succession.
From BBC • Apr. 29, 2026
The Zeitouns were proud, and there was plenty of sibling rivalry that had pushed them all to an array of achievements—all of them measured against the deeds of Mohammed.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
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.
