Friar vs. Sister — What's the Difference?

A friar is a brother and a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the older monastic orders' allegiance to a single monastery formalized by their vow of stability. The most significant orders of friars are the Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians and Carmelites.

A sister is a woman or girl who shares one or more parents with another individual. The male counterpart is a brother.

A member of a usually mendicant Roman Catholic order.

A female having the same parents as another or one parent in common with another.

A member of a mendicant Christian order such as the Augustinians, Carmelites (white friars), Franciscans (grey friars) or the Dominicans (black friars).

A kinswoman.

A white or pale patch on a printed page caused by poor inking.

A woman fellow member, as of a sorority.

An American fish, the silverside.

A fellow woman.

A brother or member of any religious order, but especially of one of the four mendicant orders, viz: (a) Minors, Gray Friars, or Franciscans. (b) Augustines. (c) Dominicans or Black Friars. (d) White Friars or Carmelites. See these names in the Vocabulary.

A close woman friend or companion.

A white or pale patch on a printed page.

A fellow African American woman or girl.

An American fish; the silversides.

A woman who advocates, fosters, or takes part in the feminist movement.

A male member of a religious order that originally relied soley on alms

(Informal) Used as a form of address for a woman or girl.

A member of a religious order of women; a nun.

Used as a form of address for such a woman, alone or followed by the woman's name.

Chiefly British A nurse, especially the head nurse in a ward.

One identified as female and closely related to another

(Architecture) A beam or other structural member affixed to another as a supplementary support.

Related by or as if by sisterhood; closely related

(Genetics) Of or being one of an identical, related, or homologous pair

(Architecture) To affix a beam or other structural member to (another) as a supplementary support.

A daughter of the same parents as another person; a female sibling.

A female member of a religious order; especially one devoted to more active service; (informally) a nun.

Any butterfly in the genus Adelpha, so named for the resemblance of the dark-colored wings to the black habit traditionally worn by nuns.

(British) A senior or supervisory nurse, often in a hospital.

Any woman or girl with whom a bond is felt through common membership in a community, race, profession, religion, organization, or ism.

A black woman.

(informal) A form of address to a woman.

A woman, in certain religious, labour or socialist circles; also as a form of address.

(attributively) An entity that has a special or affectionate, non-hierarchical relationship with another.

(comptheory) A node in a data structure that shares its parent with another node.

Something in the same class.

To strengthen (a supporting beam) by fastening a second beam alongside it.

To be sister to; to resemble closely.

A female who has the same parents with another person, or who has one of them only. In the latter case, she is more definitely called a half sister. The correlative of brother.

A woman who is closely allied to, or assocciated with, another person, as in the sdame faith, society, order, or community.

One of the same kind, or of the same condition; - generally used adjectively; as, sister fruits.

To be sister to; to resemble closely.

A female person who has the same parents as another person;

(Roman Catholic Church) a title given to a nun (and used as a form of address);

A female person who is a fellow member of a sorority or labor union or other group;

Sometimes used as a term of address for attractive young women