Is the kanji for sister-in-law and step sister the same? I was wondering if the kanji for both sister-in-law and step sister is (younger sister) or (older sister) and there's no way of differentiating them other than context?

If your question is how to tell meaning of , you need to guess from contexts in the present-day colloquial language.

Strictly speaking, []{}[]{} or []{}[]{} only means (or meant) sister-in-law or sworn sister. Here are definitions in .

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In colloquial language, []{}[]{} and []{}[]{} have taken in the place of []{}[]{} and []{}[]{} which mean elder/younger stepsister.

If your question is how to distinguish step sister from sister-in-law, you can use []{}[]{}[]{} (elder sister from a different mother), []{}[]{}[]{} (elder sister from a different father) and so on, which sound very formal.