Maternal

How to spell maternal

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce maternal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does maternal mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to a mother, or characteristic of motherly care and instinct.
2. adjectiveRelated through or descended from the mother's side of a family.

Maternal in a sentence

• The nurse showed great maternal warmth toward the frightened toddler.

• He inherited his height from his maternal grandfather.

• Her maternal instinct told her something was wrong with the baby.

• The genetic condition was traced to her maternal line.

Where does maternal come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Maternal comes from the Latin maternus, meaning 'of a mother', which was built on mater, the ordinary Latin word for 'mother'. English took the word in through Old French maternel during the late Middle Ages, and by the 1400s it was used to describe anything belonging to or characteristic of a mother. The same mater root sits behind a whole family of English words, including 'matron', 'matrimony', 'matriarch', and even 'matter' (in the older sense of the material from which things are made). In genealogy the word also marks the mother's side of a family, as in a maternal grandfather. The single 't' and the plain '-al' ending are the spelling points to watch, since there is no doubling and no hidden vowel.

How the word is built

• matern- (from Latin mater: mother)
• -al (adjective suffix)