Meaning & use
maternity leave
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
A period of time away from work, often paid, that a woman takes just before and after her baby is born.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: she is on maternity leave, not a maternity leave, though the plural is possible when comparing policies.
Patterns
- be on maternity leave
- take maternity leave
- go on maternity leave
Priya starts her maternity leave next month.
The company offers six months of paid maternity leave.
While Dana is on maternity leave, a colleague is covering her classes.
Common combinations
- go on maternity leave
- She will go on maternity leave in June.
- return from maternity leave
- He was glad when she returned from maternity leave.
- paid maternity leave
- Paid maternity leave helps new mothers recover.
- statutory maternity leave
- Employees are entitled to statutory maternity leave by law.
- extend maternity leave
- She asked to extend her maternity leave by a month.
Synonyms and how they differ
- parental leave
- Parental leave can be taken by either parent, while maternity leave is for the mother only.
- paternity leave
- Paternity leave is the matching time off for fathers, usually shorter than maternity leave.
- family leave
- Family leave is broader, because it can cover caring for a sick relative as well as a new baby.
Word family
- maternity noun
- the state of being a mother
- maternal adjective
- relating to a mother
- paternity leave noun
- time off for a new father
Commonly confused: maternity leave or sick leave?
maternity leave vs sick leave
Sick leave is time off because of illness, whereas maternity leave is time off for childbirth and early baby care.
Practice
Complete the sentence: Our manager is ___ maternity leave until September.
Choose one answer.
We say someone is on maternity leave. In, at and for do not form this fixed expression.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “maternity leave”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.