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

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?”

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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.

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Account after account, one common punchline makes its way into the comments: “Just like grandma used to make.”

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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.