sororal

English

WOTD – 12 April 2025

Etymology

Etymology tree

Latin sororlbor.

English -al

English sororal

PIE word
*swésōr

Two young sisters in Transylvania, Louisiana, U.S.A., in January 1939.

Learned borrowing from Latin soror (“sister”) + English -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /səˈɹɔːɹ(ə)l/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /səˈɹɔɹəl/
• Rhymes: -ɔːɹəl
• Hyphenation: so‧ror‧al

Adjective

sororal (not comparable)

1. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a sister or sisters; sisterlike, sisterly.

   Synonym: sororial

   Antonyms: nonsororal, unsisterlike, unsisterly

   Coordinate terms: avuncular, filial, fraternal, grandfilial, grandmaternal, grandparental, grandpaternal, (of a husband, obsolete) marital, maternal, materteral, nepotal, parental, paternal, uxorial

2. (archaic) Related through a sister. [from mid 17th c.]

   sororal nephew

Derived terms

• nonsororal
• sororally
• sororal nephew
• sororal niece
• sororal polygyny
• sororal twin

Related terms

• sororate
• sororial
• sororially
• sororicide
• sorority

Translations

of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a sister or sisters

• Arabic: أُخْتِيّ (ʔuḵtiyy)
• Armenian: քույրական (hy) (kʻuyrakan)
• Belarusian: сястры́нскі (sjastrýnski)
• Bulgarian: се́стрински (séstrinski)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 姐妹 (zh) (jiěmèi), 姊妹 (zh)

• Czech: sesterský
• Dutch: zusterlijk (nl)
• Finnish: sisarellinen
• French: sororal (fr), sororel (fr), de sœur (fr)
• German: schwesterlich (de), geschwisterlich (de)
• Japanese: 姉妹 (ja) (しまい, shimai)
• Latin: sorōrius
• Macedonian: сестрински (sestrinski)
• Persian: خواهرانه (fa) (xâharâne), خواهَرِی (fa) (xâhari)
• Polish: siostrzany (pl)
• Romanian: de soră (ro)
• Russian: се́стринский (ru) (séstrinskij)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сѐстрӣнскӣ

  Latin: sèstrīnskī (sh)

• Slovak: sesterský
• Spanish: sororal
• Tajik: хоҳарона (tg) (xoharona)
• Ukrainian: сестри́нський (sestrýnsʹkyj)
• Volapük: sörik (vo)

related through a sister

• Finnish: sisaren kautta (adverbial expression), sisarenpuoleinen
• Spanish: sororal

Further reading

• sister on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Alternative forms

• sororel

Etymology

From Latin soror (“sister”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɔ.ʁɔ.ʁal/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Adjective

sororal (feminine sororale, masculine plural sororaux, feminine plural sororales)

1. (rare) sororal

Further reading

• “sororal”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /soɾoˈɾal/ [so.ɾoˈɾal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: so‧ro‧ral

Adjective

sororal m or f (masculine and feminine plural sororales)

1. sororal

Further reading

• “sororal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025