grandchild
Americannoun
-
grandchildren
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of grandchild
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Ellen Vance was waffling over when to retire from her government grants-management job when her son and daughter-in-law told her they were expecting her first grandchild.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2026
His protagonist is a writer who’s trying to build a relationship with his grandchild, Ben, while navigating the half-suppressed scorn of his daughter-in-law and the irritated complacency of his son.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 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
Seven years after Lyon’s death, the account — now worth approximately $1.7 million — has still not reached a single grandchild.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026
For the next half hour, he straightened up and tried to fix the television as his sons, his daughter-in-law, and a grandchild gathered outside the house.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
Meghan did not provide any details but said it had given her sufficient reason to not visit Thomas Markle and not allow him to meet his grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
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
The mobile home had two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and plenty of room for her daughter, Lulu Johnson, 41, and two grandchildren, Layla and Ella, who reportedly also lived in Malibu, visiting frequently.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 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
They farmed and built a house and brought a series of older and older children from the audience into the imaginary home, and then more babies for grandchildren.
From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
