sibship

1 8.9

A group of brothers and sisters in the same family

noun
/ˈsɪbʃɪp/

Specialized

: hermandad

They shared responsibilities and experiences that strengthened their sibship throughout their childhood.

Examples

But it should be noted that laterborns, when controlled for sex, socioeconomic status, education, age, and sibship size, are more liberal than firstborns.

Academic text (1999)
These practices, like sororal polygyny, help ensure the solidarity of the sibship and preserve a grandparent's relationship with a grandchild, even though the linking parent might be deceased (Eggan 1937: 61-62).

Academic text (1991)
This makes it more likely that the co-wives were sisters, since women as much as 23 years different in age are not likely to be members of the same sibship.

Academic text (1991)
In two recent tests of this hypothesis, tiger salamander larvae and spadefoot toad tadpoles were found to be significantly more likely to express the cannibal phenotype in mixed sibship groups.

Academic text (1997)
Growing up in a large family, she loved the bond of sibship that united her brothers and sisters.
During family reunions, the importance of sibship became clear as they reminisced about their shared upbringing.

Surface Forms

sibship singular

sibships plural

Morphology

sibship = sib (semi-transparent) = sib + ship

The word is built regularly from 'sib' + '-ship', but 'sib' is uncommon and may not be familiar to many learners.

Etymology

Sibship comes from sib, the same part you see in sibling and meaning 'brother or sister', plus the ending -ship, which means a 'state' or 'group' like in friendship. So sibship is the 'group of siblings' in a family.