Synonyms of maternal

maternal

adjective

mə-ˈtər-nᵊl 

as in mother

of, relating to, or characteristic of a mother

her maternal instincts told her that something was wrong

Synonyms & Similar Words

• mother
• parental
• feminine
• motherly
• female
• womanly
• caring
• matronly
• nurturing
• matriarchal
• womanlike
• womanish
• giving

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of maternal

Waldorf called the maternal-fetal-medicine team at the University of Arkansas for Medical Science in Little Rock, the state’s only academic health center. —Kavitha Surana, ProPublica, 26 May 2026

Prone to wearing clothes that suggest an overgrown pre-teen herself, all frills, flounces and bright colors, Martha doesn’t look like great maternal material to Claire, although this judgmental attitude may be evidence of her own maternal deficiencies. —Leslie Felperin, HollywoodReporter, 24 May 2026

Burden is a descendant, on her father’s side, of the railroad-and-shipping titan Cornelius Vanderbilt and, on her mother’s side, of Henry Morgan Tilford, one of the founders of Standard Oil; her maternal grandmother was the socialite Babe Paley. —Jessica Winter, New Yorker, 23 May 2026

Arkansas has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation. —Alyssa Goldberg, USA Today, 4 May 2026