Motherhood

How to spell motherhood

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce motherhood

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does motherhood mean?

1. nounThe state or experience of being a mother.

Motherhood in a sentence

• Motherhood changed her daily routine in countless ways.

• The book explores the demands of motherhood in a busy modern household.

Where does motherhood come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word joins two native English elements and reaches back to Old English. The first part, 'mother', descends from Old English 'modor', a word for a female parent that has cousins across nearly every branch of the Indo-European family, including Latin 'mater' and Sanskrit 'matar'. The second part, '-hood', comes from Old English 'had', which originally meant a person's state, rank, or condition; the same suffix gives us 'childhood', 'knighthood', and 'neighbourhood'. Put together, 'motherhood' literally names the state or condition of being a mother, and it has been recorded in English in roughly this form since the medieval period. The spelling is straightforward once you remember the silent join: the 'er' of mother sits directly against 'hood' with no extra letters.

How the word is built

• mother (female parent)
• -hood (state or condition of, from Old English -had)