how to pronounce maternal

/məˈtɜː.nəl/

audio example by a male speaker

audio example by a female speaker

the above transcription of maternal is a detailed (narrow) transcription according to the rules of the International Phonetic Association; you can find a description of each symbol by clicking the phoneme buttons in the secction below.

maternal is pronounced in three syllables

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1.

2.

ɜː

3. example pitch curve for pronunciation of maternal

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video examples of maternal pronunciation

An example use of maternal in a speech by a native speaker of british english:

“… work that we're doing on maternal mental …”

meanings of maternal

adjective:

Of or pertaining to a mother; having the characteristics of a mother; motherly.
Derived from the mother as opposed to the foetus during pregnancy.
Related through the mother, or her side of the family.

noun:

A mother.
A person related through the mother, or her side of the family; a maternal relative.

maternal frequency in english - C1 level of CEFR

the word maternal occurs in english on average 7.3 times per one million words; this frequency warrants it to be in the study list for C1 level of language mastery according to CEFR, the Common European Framework of Reference.

topics maternal can be related to

it is hard to perfectly classify words into specific topics since each word can have many context of its use, but our machine-learning models believe that maternal can be often used in the following areas:

1) life, nature, and living environment;