What does "sisterhood" mean?

The state, or kinship of being sisters.

What is a synonym for "sisterhood"?

Common synonyms include: sistership, sistership, affiliation, agnation, alliance, ancestry.

Pronounced //ˈsɪstɚˌhʊd//.

//ˈsɪstɚˌhʊd// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Noun

1
The state, or kinship of being sisters. countable, uncountable
2
a religious society of women who live together as sisters (especially an order of nuns) wordnet
3
The quality of being sisterly; sisterly companionship; especially, the sense that women have of being in solidarity with one another. countable, uncountable
4
an association or society of women who are linked together by a common religion or trade or interest wordnet
5
A religious society of women. countable, uncountable
"In contrast, she said, women join sisterhoods and do volunteer work for Jewish fundraising organizations that are run and dominated by men."

Show 2 more definitions

6
the kinship relation between a female offspring and the siblings wordnet
7
The idea of universal experience amongst women, regardless of other traits or factors. (Considered obsolete in third-wave feminism.) countable, uncountable
"What does the rallying cry of sisterhood and the concept of feminism mean when last year, the majority of white, female voters chose whiteness as a political identity over womanhood?"

"In contrast, she said, women join sisterhoods and do volunteer work for Jewish fundraising organizations that are run and dominated by men."

From Middle English susterhede; equivalent to sister + -hood (with a modification in the suffix).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.