maternal
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Related to a woman who has given birth to a child.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
muhturnuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
məˈtɝnəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Of or pertaining to a mother; having the characteristics of a mother; motherly.
“Warm maternal affection for her guest"- Dorothy Sayers.”
Related through the mother, or her side of the family.
noun
A person related through the mother, or her side of the family; a maternal relative.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Related through the mother, or her side of the family.
Used this way, maternal is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in family or home contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Family/home
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use maternal
- “Warm maternal affection for her guest"- Dorothy Sayers.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The quality of having or showing the tenderness and warmth and affection of or befitting a mother.
The attachment that forms between an infant and its mother beginning at birth.
One's native language.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.