maternity

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: ma=ter=ni=ty

CIDE DICTIONARY

maternity, n. [F. maternité, LL. maternitas.].

•  The state of being a mother; motherhood.  [1913 Webster]
•  The character of a mother; maternal quality; motherliness.  [1913 Webster]
•  The maternity ward; the maternity department of a hospital.  [PJC]

maternity, a. 

•  Of or pertaining to childbirth or the period during which a woman is pregnant; as, maternity care; a maternity hospital.  [PJC]
•  For use during pregnancy; as, a maternity outfit.  [PJC]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

maternity, n.
1 motherhood.
2 motherliness.
3 (attrib.) a for women during and just after childbirth (maternity hospital; maternity leave). b suitable for a pregnant woman (maternity dress; maternity wear).

Etymology

F maternit{eacute} f. med.L maternitas -tatis f. L maternus f. mater mother

THESAURUS

maternity

affiliation, agnation, alliance, ancestry, blood, blood relationship, brotherhood, brothership, cognation, common ancestry, common descent, connection, consanguinity, cousinhood, cousinship, enation, fatherhood, filiation, fraternity, kindred, kinship, maternalness, matrilineage, matriliny, matrisib, matrocliny, motherhood, motherliness, mothership, parenthood, paternity, patrilineage, patriliny, patrisib, patrocliny, pregnancy, propinquity, relation, relationship, sibship, sisterhood, sistership, ties of blood

ROGET THESAURUS

maternity

Paternity

N paternity, parentage, consanguinity, parent, father, sire, dad, papa, paterfamilias, abba, genitor, progenitor, procreator, ancestor, grandsire, grandfather, great- grandfather, fathership, fatherhood, mabap, house, stem, trunk, tree, stock, stirps, pedigree, lineage, line, family, tribe, sept, race, clan, genealogy, descent, extraction, birth, ancestry, forefathers, forbears, patriarchs, motherhood, maternity, mother, dam, mamma, materfamilias, grandmother, paternal, parental, maternal, family, ancestral, linear, patriarchal, avi numerantur avorum, happy he with such a mother, hombre bueno no le busquen abolengo, philosophia stemma non inspicit.