motherly
/ˈmʌðɚli/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.72 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adv
In a way pertaining to, befitting, or of a mother.
Example Sentences
- "Clover was a stout motherly mare approaching middle life[…]"
- "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."
- "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."
- "To the father it would have been the worst of his loss to see his son wiping the sweat and dust from the forehead his mother had been so motherly proud of, and hear the heavy sigh with which he would sink in the not too easy chair that was all his haven after the tossing of the day’s weary ground[-]swell."
- "Mrs. Rutherford looked motherly at the eager girl and caressed her curls[…]"
Etymology
From Middle English moderly, from Old English mōdorlīċ (“motherly, maternal”), from Proto-Germanic *mōdērlīkaz (“motherly, maternal”), equivalent to mother + -ly.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈmʌðɚli/
- British English: /ˈmʌðəli/
Inflected Forms
more motherly (comparative)
most motherly (superlative)