grandma

[gran-mah, -maw, grand-, gram-, gram-muh]

noun

Informal.

1. grandmother.

grandma

/ ˈɡrænˌmɑː, ˈɡrænd-, ˈɡrænməˌmɑː, ˈɡrænd-, ˈɡræm- /

noun

1. informal words for grandmother

Word History and Origins

Origin of grandma¹

First recorded in 1865–70; grand- + ma

Example Sentences

"I'm about to be a grandma again for the second time. And it's heartbreaking to know that she may not be able to experience that," Hutson said.

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Since her death, I have used some of the money from the sale of her house to pay many of my uncle’s bills because my grandma wouldn’t want him to end up homeless.

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The women said passersby offered them a mixture of “some middle fingers” and supportive honks as they held signs that read, among other things, “Would your grandma approve?”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Known to the children as “aunty” or “grandma,” Johnson would treat them to dips in the pool at the Raffles and doted on them at the center.

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"You make your Opry debut and your mom, dad and grandma come in town and it's this linchpin of your whole career," he says.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• ancestor 
• granny 
• matriarch 

When To Use

What does grandma mean?

Grandma is an informal word for grandmother—the mother of a person’s parent.When a mother’s child has their own children, that mother becomes a grandma. The word ma is an informal way to say mother.Grandma is often combined with a name, especially when a person has two grandmothers that they call Grandma, as in Grandma Marg and Grandma Marie. Should grandma be capitalized?Grandma should be capitalized when it’s used as a proper name, as in Please tell Grandma that I miss her. But grandma does not need to be capitalized when it’s simply used as a way to refer to her, as in Please tell my grandma that I miss her. Example: It doesn’t matter what you call your grandma, as long as you call her.