Sibling denotes a brother or sister, respectively meaning a male or female who shares at least one parent with the person being referenced. This is usually taken to mean that the two people are genetically very close, though it is not always necessarily the case, i.e. an adoption.

In most societies throughout the world, siblings will usually grow up in the same household. This closeness is marked with the development of strong emotional associations between them (e.g., love, enmity). However, closeness may not always develop in sibling relationships, particularly between those with an age difference of five years or more.

Stepsibling

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A stepsibling (stepbrother or stepsister), is a sibling with whom an individual bears no blood relation, and is only related by the marriage of one parent of the individual to one parent of the sibling; see stepfamily.

Half sibling

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A half sibling (half brother or half sister) is a sibling with one shared biological parent. Half siblings can have a wide variety of interpersonal relationships, from a bond as close as any full siblings, to total strangers.

While many half siblings are stepsiblings and vice versa, someone may have either relationship without the other: step-siblings each have a parent married to a parent of the other but not necessarily a parent in common, and half siblings not living in the same household are not always considered stepsiblings.

Siblings Through Breast Feeding

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In Islam those who are breastfed by a woman other than their biological mother become siblings to the biological children of that woman provided that they are less than 2 years old and have been breastfed five times or more by that woman. According to the shariah these siblings are not allowed to marry each other.

See also

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• Sibling rivalry
• Father
• Mother
• Family
• Cousin chart

Family | Kinship and descent

Breur | Sourozenec | Frato | Broer | Irmão | Сибсы | Sister | Syskon