Standard Lemma guide

materteral

adj · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /məˈtɜːtəɹl̩/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /məˈtɜɹtəɹ(ə)l/
  • General-American: [-ɾə-]
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Of or relating to, or in the manner of, an aunt.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: humorous, rare

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: auntish, auntlike, auntyish, materterine

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Latin māterteralbor. Proto-Indo-European *h2el-der.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālisbor. Old French -albor. ▲ Latin -ālis Old French -elbor. ▲ Latin -ālisbor. Middle English -al English -al English materteral Learned borrowing from Latin mātertera (“maternal aunt”), + from -al (suffix forming adjectives). Mātertera is derived from māter (“mother”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *méh2tēr (“mother”)) + ‐tera (feminine form of ‐ter (suffix forming nouns)).

Across languages

Translations

2 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Polish: cioteczny — of or relating to, or in the manner of, an aunt
  • Polish: ciotczyny — of or relating to, or in the manner of, an aunt