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:
For 18 years, this was his home, where his three children grew up, where one of his sons got married in the front yard and a grandchild was born.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026
Jones was reported missing July 7 after she didn’t pick up her grandchild and wasn’t responding to phone calls, according to the release.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
The investigators working with the BBC discovered that Temerbek studied Ukrainian language at university and has a wife, daughter and son in their 20s, and grandchild.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
My dad was a scientist and, looking back to their lives in India…I remember looking back and being like, if my grandparents were here, could they even imagine that their grandchild did this?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026
“Granddaughter, today is one of the saddest days in my long life, in all our lives. You, my sixth grandchild, must go away, far away....”
From "In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson" by Bette Bao Lord
Would it be foolish to sell $10,000 in shares to visit my grandchildren in Thailand?
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
Susanna Woodgate, who curated the sale, said: "It was wonderful to see real fans managing to secure a keepsake of something they loved, or perhaps to share with their own children and grandchildren."
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
"Some of these homes hold a couple generations' worth of people...you're talking about the family, the children, and the grandchildren."
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
He is survived by his two children, Lisa Wright and Richard Wood III, and five grandchildren.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Survivors tell their children and grandchildren about the events.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
Definitions 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.
