maternally
Americanadverb
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through the mother (used to describe how people are related, how traits are inherited, etc.).
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in a maternal way; in a way that is characteristic of a mother.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Researchers recovered nuclear DNA, finding that the men were second-degree relatives, most likely maternally related.
From Science Magazine
Patterns of variation in the Y chromosome, which is paternally inherited, and in mitochondrial DNA, which is maternally inherited, can reveal differences in how males and females dispersed after reaching maturity.
From Scientific American
However, mitochondrial DNA may not provide sufficient information for identification, since people who are maternally related, even very distantly, will share the same sequence.
From Scientific American
He and colleagues sifted through 40 years’ worth of data on three Pacific pods, social groups typically consisting of a couple dozen, maternally related killer whales that travel and hunt fish together.
From Science Magazine
For example, in maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA, there are about 16,000 base pairs.
From Scientific American
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
