sibling
Americannoun
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siblings
plural
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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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
See Examples For:
Even Charles's February 2024 announcement that he was receiving treatment for cancer did not spur a reconciliation between Prince William, 44, and his younger sibling Harry, 41.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
The sibling dispute was triggered after Mark Walter agreed to sell the Lakers to Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner at a $12.5 billion valuation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
In 2023, her younger brother and only sibling, Jansen Panettiere, died of heart complications.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
Issues such as having a parent or sibling with dementia, as well as traumatic brain injury, increase your overall dementia risk, however.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 17, 2026
We stayed with my great-uncle Thomas during our visits, another sibling of Dandy's.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Dalibor had received a gift from two young siblings, eight-year-old Claire and Peter, six, from Mold, Flintshire, and had hoped to track them down but only had limited information on them.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Advice for a shocking family discovery: What would you do if you discovered you have secret siblings?
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026
As the Buss siblings battle each other for the right to sell their minority stake in the Lakers, at least one of the other minority shareholder is sticking with the team.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
In 2017, Jeanie fired her older brother Jim as president of basketball operations, and her siblings responded with an attempted power-grab that Streisand described as a “coup.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
“Maybe peas will go extinct,” Alexander said to his siblings, who squawked faintly but approvingly.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
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.
