Maternity

How to spell maternity

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce maternity

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does maternity mean?

1. nounThe state of being a mother, or the period surrounding pregnancy and childbirth.

Maternity in a sentence

• She applied for six months of paid maternity leave before the baby arrived.

• The hospital expanded its maternity unit to handle more births each year.

Where does maternity come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun mater, meaning simply 'mother', which gave rise to the adjective maternus, 'of a mother', and from there to the medieval Latin maternitas, the abstract state of motherhood. English borrowed it in the fifteenth century by way of the French maternite, keeping the sense of the condition or quality of being a mother. The same mater root sits behind a whole family of familiar English words, including maternal, matron, matrimony, and even matriculate, all linking back to the idea of the mother. Over time maternity narrowed in everyday use to cover the period around pregnancy and birth, which is why it now attaches so readily to phrases like maternity leave and maternity ward. The spelling stays close to its Latin parent, so remembering the central 'mater' (mother) is the easiest way to keep the t and the single-r ending in place.

How the word is built

• matern- (from Latin mater: mother)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix denoting a state or quality)