motherly
/ˈmʌðəli/US/ˈmʌðɚli/
motherly adjective: befitting a mother; warm, caring, nurturing, protective, loving.
Adjective
motherly (comparative more motherly, superlative most motherly)
- Befitting a mother; warm, caring, nurturing, protective, loving.
- Clover was a stout motherly mare approaching middle life[…]1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter I, in Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962...
- Synonyms:
- maternal, motherful, motherlike
Adverb
motherly (comparative more motherly, superlative most motherly)
- In a way pertaining to, befitting, or of a mother.
- The mother sometime beateth the child, but yet her hart melteth vpon it euen in the very beating, and therefore she casteth the rodde into the fier, and colleth the childe, geueth it an apple and dandleth it moste motherly.1554, Iohn Bradford, Certain Most Godly, Fruitful, and Comfortable Letters of Such True Saintes and Holy Martyrs of God, […], published 1564, page 288
- I Am glad that you approve and applaud my design, of withdrawing my self from all tumult and business of the World; and consecrating the little rest of my time to those studies, to which Nature had so Motherly inclined me, and from which Fortune like a Step-mother has so long detained me.1663, Abraham Cowley, The Danger of Procrastination, published 1669
- Synonyms:
- maternally
motherly meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Arabic
motherly in Tamil
- தாய்மைக்குணமுடைய, தாயின் நற்பண்புகள் வாய்ந்த
motherly in Urdu
- مادری
motherly in Malayalam
- caring, maternal, maternalistic
- മാതൃസഹജ, അമ്മയെപ്പോലെയുള്ള, മാതൃനിർവ്വിശേഷം, മാതൃസദൃശമായ, മാതൃതുല്യമായ, മാതൃയോഗ്യമായ
motherly in Arabic
- befitting a mother; warm, caring, nurturing, protective, loving
- أُمِّيّ ʔummiyy, أُمُومِيّ ʔumūmiyy
More languagesFewer languages
- motherly in Persian
- مادرانه mâdarâne
Examples of motherly in a sentence
- “It’s going to be fine,” Mother said in her soothing motherly voice.
- She was mid-fifties, a well built woman, motherly in appearance but keen-eyed, culturedly businesslike in manner.
- She was very motherly towards me then and it was beaut.
Synonyms of motherly
Forms of motherly
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more motherly |
| superlative | most motherly |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more motherly |
| superlative | most motherly |
Origin of motherly
From Middle English moderly, from Old English mōdorlīċ (“motherly, maternal”), from Proto-Germanic *mōdērlīkaz (“motherly, maternal”), equivalent to mother + -ly.
Words formed from motherly
Questions about motherly
- What does motherly mean?
- Motherly means befitting a mother; warm, caring, nurturing, protective, loving.
- What is motherly in Tamil?
- Motherly in Tamil is தாய்மைக்குணமுடைய, தாயின் நற்பண்புகள் வாய்ந்த. See Motherly meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is motherly?
- Motherly can be an adjective or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce motherly?
- Motherly is pronounced /ˈmʌðəli/ (UK).
Words near motherly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: motherly (page history and authors); motherly (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); motherly (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); motherly (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-motherly.wav.
Cite this entry: “motherly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/motherly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.