grandmother
Americannoun
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grandmothers
plural
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the mother of one's father or mother.
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a female ancestor.
noun
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the mother of one's father or mother
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(often plural) a female ancestor
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(often capital) a familiar term of address for an old woman
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See egg 1
Usage
What does grandmother mean? A grandmother is the mother of a person’s parent. When a mother’s child has their own children, that mother becomes a grandmother. Less commonly, grandmother can be used in a general way to refer to a female ancestor, as in This would not be possible without the contributions of those who came before us, our many grandmothers. Should grandmother be capitalized?Grandmother should be capitalized when it’s used as a proper name, as in Please tell Grandmother that I miss her. But grandmother does not need to be capitalized when it’s simply used as a way to refer to her, as in Please tell my grandmother that I miss her. Example: It doesn’t matter what you call your grandmother, as long as you call her.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of grandmother
late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425; see origin at grand-, mother 1
Explanation
Your grandmother is your mom or dad's mother. In many traditional cultures, a grandmother lives with her adult child's family and helps raise her grandchildren. Everyone has two biological grandmothers, maternal (your mother's mother) and paternal (your father's mother). If you're lucky, your grandmother is someone you get to know well. One of the most well-known fictional grandmothers appears in "Little Red Riding Hood," the fairy tale in which a wolf disguises himself as Red Riding Hood's grandmother in an attempt to fool her into being eaten.
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:
Dipke, however, had travelled to his hometown in Maharashtra after the death of his grandmother.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
"My grandmother and my auntie used to tell me that he's a cousin of the family. Cause you know, it's a very small island, Corsica."
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
It’s a story I’ve repeatedly told over my decades-long journalism career, and no one has yet challenged my description of my grandmother as an immigrant.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
The novel then shifts to recount the “contrapuntal fate” of Adelaide Percheron, an orphan raised by her grandmother in Pondicherry, a French settlement in India.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
“Your grandmother is looking for you,” Marco said.
From "Storm Runners" by Roland Smith
“You don’t have mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts and uncles ... we needed help,” said Rudy, who moved to L.A. from New York.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
Salterelli has seen cases where competing grandmothers both want to be guardians and a custody battle ensues.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
What began as a chance encounter on a flight to Las Vegas could soon be heading to the big screen, as a group of grandmothers and a pro-wrestler discuss a film based on their story.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Add to that the centuries-old cliches of Italian mothers and grandmothers showing their love through food, and it's a perfect storm.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
So he remained shut in at the mercy of Santa Sofía de la Piedad's loving eyes and Úrsula’s mental quirks, learning in the narrow world of the house whatever his grandmothers explained to him.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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.
