grandchild

American  

[gran-chahyld] / ˈgrænˌtʃaɪld /

noun

• grandchildren
  plural

1. a child of one's son or daughter.

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grandchild British  

/ ˈɡrænˌtʃaɪld /

noun

1. the son or daughter of one's child

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• grandchildren
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of grandchild

First recorded in 1580–90; grand- + child

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Explanation

If you have a grandparent, you are a grandchild. You are the grandchild of your mother’s and father’s parents. If you have a grandchild, your son or daughter had a baby. Congratulations. A person becomes a grandparent when their kid has their first baby, and that baby is the grandparent’s grandchild. Boys are often called "grandsons," and girls "granddaughters," but both are also grandchildren. Grandchild uses the family or genealogical sense of the prefix grand-, which first meant "a generation older than," and since Elizabethan times has also meant "a generation younger than."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

grandchild grandchildren

But older, retired people are also more likely to have time to be with grandchildren, and spending on each grandchild grows as family sizes shrink.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2026

Eventually, the only-child grandchild could inherit 25% while cousins in the largest branch receive just 6.25% each.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026

Neighborhood residents Herman Johnson and Laura Lacy told KTLA-TV that Babers is their foster daughter and the baby their grandchild.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

"I kept holding on to the idea that they'd see the truth - they'd realise this was their grandchild, and they'd relent."

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026

I could understand his anger: it was one thing for a grandparent to withhold something like that from a grandchild, quite another for a father to keep it from his son—and for so long.

From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs

Newhan is survived by his wife, Connie; his son, David, and daughter-in-law, Karen; his daughter, Sara, and son-in-law, Mike; five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026

She can telegraph to you and herself that, despite her reported feelings about you, she has done the right thing for her grandchildren.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2026

We now understand that Meghan was telling him he would never see his grandchildren.

From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2026

Noxious fumes made a long interview outdoors impossible, and she lamented that her grandchildren can no longer swim in her small pool.

From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2026

I worried that they might affect Joylette, who was now living with her husband in East Orange, New Jersey, with my first grandchildren, Laurie and Troy.

From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson

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