maternal

Modifies a noun

• grandmother: My maternal grandmother was Jessie Shelley of Southend on Sea in the UK.
• grandfather: My maternal grandfather was an attorney in good practice.
• mortality: TB causes more deaths among women world wide than all causes of maternal mortality combined.
• uncle: A young maternal uncle, who had grown a beard at an early age, volunteered to take on the task.
• grandparent: The maternal grandparents have obtained parental responsibility under a court order in the United Kingdom.
• instinct: However, the maternal instinct clearly shone through with women proving more generous with their prize money.

Modifying Another Word

• very: It was a very maternal remark, the kind made when an obstreperous boy had repeated a question for the hundredth time.
• particularly: Affected girls are often particularly maternal by nature and if reproduction is impossible many take great joy in adopting and mothering children.
• naturally: It's the same with motherhood, so stop beating yourself up for not being naturally maternal.
• exclusively: In normal reproduction, mtDNA inheritance is exclusively maternal.