maternité
French, noun/ma.tɛʁ.ni.te/
maternité is spelled M-A-T-E-R-N-I-T-É (9 letters) and appears 6.2 times per million words in written French, the 9,615th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Maternité is a French feminine noun meaning “maternity, motherhood” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “État, qualité de mère”.
What does maternité mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininematernity, motherhood
- 2
femininepregnancy
- 3
femininematernity ward (in a hospital)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. État, qualité de mère. 2. Grossesse, gestation, fait de porter un enfant et d’accoucher. 3. Établissement destiné à recevoir les personnes qui vont accoucher, à les assister lors de la naissance de leur enfant et les premiers jours du nourrisson. 4. Qualité d’autrice.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of maternité
- maternités plural
- paternité masculine
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce maternité?
- /ma.tɛʁ.ni.te/
- \ma.tɛʁ.ni.te\
- [ma.tɛʁ.ni.te]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to maternité
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is maternité in French?
maternité appears 6.2 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).