maternity
Americannoun
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the state of being a mother; motherhood.
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motherly quality; motherliness.
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a section of a hospital devoted to the care of women at childbirth and of their newborn infants.
adjective
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of, relating to, or for the period in which a woman is pregnant or has just given birth to a child.
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for mothers during and after childbirth or for the care of their newborn babies.
a maternity hospital.
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for wear by pregnant women.
maternity clothes.
noun
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motherhood
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the characteristics associated with motherhood; motherliness
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(modifier) relating to pregnant women or women at the time of childbirth
a maternity ward
Other Word Forms
- prematernity noun
Etymology
Origin of maternity
1605–15; < Medieval Latin māternitās, equivalent to Latin mātern ( us ) ( maternal ) + -itās -ity
Explanation
Use the noun maternity to describe the relationship of a mother to her children. The state of maternity includes everything involved in becoming a mother, from being pregnant to giving birth to chasing a little kid around a playground. Adoptive mothers experience maternity too, since they are someone's mom. The word maternity comes from the Latin root mater, which means "mother," and it's related to the adjective maternal. You can mostly use the words maternity and motherhood interchangeably.
Vocabulary lists containing maternity
The Mother of All Lists: Mater, Matr
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It's All in the Family
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UCPS 6th Grade Roots List #8
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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.
Operating theatres, intensive care units and even maternity wards have been relocated to protected subterranean spaces.
From Barron's • Apr. 10, 2026
In an interview with Belly of the Beast, a Cuba-focused website, Jayapal described visiting a maternity hospital where they saw premature babies in incubators.
From Barron's • Apr. 6, 2026
Steinfeld announced she and Allen were expecting their first child in a Substack post in December, sharing photos from a snowy, bump-revealing maternity shoot.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 2, 2026
He said this was mainly because of the unregulation of such maternity services and that it was not illegal to place a baby on its front.
From BBC • Mar. 23, 2026
On the maternity floor she is assigned to a bed by a window, in a room at the end of the hall.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
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.
