Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A sister to whom one is biologically related through one parent only.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The daughter of one's mother who has a different father, maternal half sister, uterine sister
  • noun The daughter of one's father who has a different mother, paternal half sister.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English half-süster, equivalent to half- +‎ sister. Compare Dutch halfzus, halfzuster ("half-sister"), German Halbschwester ("half-sister"), Swedish halvsyster ("half-sister"), Icelandic hálf-systir ("half-sister").

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Examples

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