maternal

Questions about maternal

What does maternal mean?

maternal means "characteristic of a mother". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in maternal?

maternal has 3 syllables: ma-ter-nal. The stress falls on "ter". In IPA it is /məˈtɝnəl/.

What is another word for maternal?

Close synonyms include parental, paternal, enate, enatic. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of maternal?

The recorded antonyms are paternal.

Is maternal a common word?

maternal is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with maternal?

5 words rhyme with maternal. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.