Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Motherly |
MotherlyAdjective1. Befitting a mother; warm and nurturing. Adverb1. In a maternal manner; as a mother; "she loved her students almost maternally". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "motherly" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1350. (references) |
Synonym: MotherlySynonym: maternally (adv). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Benevolence | Fatherly, motherly, brotherly, sisterly; paternal, maternal, fraternal; sororal; friendly. |
Love | Affectionate, tender, sweet upon, sympathetic, loving; amorous, amatory; fond, erotic, uxorious, ardent, passionate, rapturous, devoted, motherly. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Motherly |
| English words defined with "motherly": carry, convey ♦ express ♦ Matronal ♦ useful, utile. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | That motherly old lady on the dome. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Industrial crisis: the motherly soul asks Duveen Brothers to pass part out little Imogen's first watercolor. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | The motherly tenderness within her, with her soft and touching words, moved them. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Motherly" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Motherly" is used about 76 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 76 | 38,217 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "motherly": motherly-looking. | |
Ending with "motherly": step-motherly. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
love motherly | 8 |
advice motherly | 3 |
motherly | 3 |
instinct motherly | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "motherly"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | si nënë, prej nëne (maternal). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | حنون (affectionate, compassionate, feeling, fond, kind, merciful, pitying, soft-hearted, soulful, tender, tender-hearted, whole-hearted), عطوف (appealing, benignant, good hearted, homely, humane, kind hearted, kindly, large-hearted, loving, matey, open-hearted, sympathetic, whole-hearted), أمومي, رؤوم (tender). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | майчински (maternal, parental), мила (honey, sweet), блага, добра. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 母亲 (maternal, mother). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | mateřský (maternal, parental). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | äidillinen (maternal). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | maternel (mother). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | mütterlich (maternal, maternally, mumsy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | μητρικόσ (maternal, mother, parental, uterine). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | אמ"י (maternal). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | anyai (maternal), anyáskodó, gyengéd (affectionate, dainty, delicate, endearing, languorous, silky, sisterly, tactful, tender, tender-hearted, womanly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | keibuan (maternity, motherhood). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | materno (maternal, mother). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | moiroil (maternal, matronly, motherlike), moiragh (maternal, matronly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | otherlymay maternalmente, maternal (maternal, parental), próprio de mãe. (various references) matern (maternal, parental), de mamã (maternal), ca o mamã. (various references) материнский (maternal). (various references) majčinski. (various references) maternal (maternal, parental). (various references) moderlig (maternal, parental). (various references) ในฐานะที่เป็นแม่, อย่างแม่. (various references) ana gibi (matronly, motherlike). (various references) материнський (maternal, native, parental), по-материнському. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "motherly": grandmotherly. (additional references) | |
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"Motherly" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Matthioli, Moheli, Rotheray, Rothery. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "motherly" (pronounced mu"therlē) |
| 5 | -u" th er l ē | brotherly, southerly. |
| 4 | -th er l ē | fatherly, grandfatherly, grandmotherly, northerly, Weatherly. |
| 3 | -er l ē | bitterly, circularly, cleverly, disorderly, eagerly, easterly, elderly, entirely, extracellularly, formerly, gingerly, improperly, irregularly, lawyerly, leisurely, linearly, masterly, miserly, neighborly, northeasterly, northwesterly, orderly, overly, painterly, particularly, peculiarly, popularly, properly, quarterly, regularly, scholarly, similarly, singularly, soberly, somberly, spectacularly, tenderly, utterly, westerly. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-h-l-m-o-r-t-y" | |
-1 letter: helotry, mothery. | |
-2 letters: homely, merlot, methyl, molter, mother, motley, myrtle, termly, theory, thymol. | |
-3 letters: ethyl, helot, holey, homer, homey, hotel, hotly, hoyle, metro, mohel, morel, motel, motey, mothy, other, rhyme, therm, thole, throe, thyme, toyer. | |
-4 letters: elmy, helm, helo, herl, herm, hero, hoer, hole, holm, holt, holy, home, homy, hyte, lehr, lore, lory, loth. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-h-l-m-o-r-t-y" | |
+2 letters: hemelytron, methylator, mythologer. | |
+3 letters: blameworthy, heartsomely, hypothermal, methylators, mythologers. | |
+4 letters: cephalometry, exothermally, geothermally, hydrothermal, isothermally, methoxychlor, mythologizer, nephelometry, photopolymer, rheumatology. | |
+5 letters: amphiprostyle, chromatolyses, grandmotherly, hypermobility, metallography, methoxychlors, mythologizers, photopolymers, plethysmogram, pyrheliometer, remythologize. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)4D 6F 74 68 65 72 6C 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-- --- - .... . .-. .-.. -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001101 01101111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01101100 01111001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)M o t h e r l y |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)004D 006F 0074 0068 0065 0072 006C 0079 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)4781867471847891 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Orthography 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
