grandparent
Americannoun
noun
Usage
What does grandparent mean? A grandparent is the parent of a person’s parent. When a parent’s child has children, that parent becomes a grandparent. Grandmothers and grandfathers are grandparents. A parent of a grandparent is called a great-grandparent. In your family tree, you have four grandparents and eight great-grandparents. Most people refer to their grandparents with titles like grandma and grandpa. Example: It doesn’t matter what you call your grandparents, as long as you call them.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of grandparent
Explanation
A grandparent is your parent's parent. Your dad's mother is your grandparent, and so is your mom's father. If you're lucky enough to have living grandparents, then that's pretty grand. Most people have a special name for each of their grandparents, whether it's "Grandma," "Grandpa Bob," or "Nana." Others never have the chance to meet their grandparents, but everyone has them. The word grandparent, first used at the start of the nineteenth century, uses grand in its sense of "a generation older than." Your grandparents are a generation older than your parents.
Vocabulary lists containing grandparent
It's All in the Family
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September Words
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Unit 10
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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:
And the good news is that the grandparent role comes in many forms today and no longer has to rely on a genetic link.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
He also has a third grandparent from County Cavan.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
Nana, my only living grandparent, is an immigrant from Mexico.
From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2026
“As a grandparent, you know you can love them and spoil them and then give them back.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026
Then I’ll have to figure out which parent to live with and which grandparent to visit.
From "As Brave As You" by Jason Reynolds
“I’m not sure what they would have thought as far as having gay descendants,” Dorothy said of her distant grandparents.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
He said that the franchise's longevity was due to "all the people like you and your parents and your grandparents, because of their intelligence and their sensitivity and their vision" in supporting Gene Roddenberry's concept.
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
He still bought a portable air conditioning unit in spring as a precaution, and is concerned about his grandparents and his father living further south in Hertfordshire.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
The parents and grandparents on her side of the family have tended to live longer than the parents and grandparents on my side of the family.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
It strikes me that the silent generation is my grandparents, and the idea of losing them causes a painful twisting in my heart.
From "Finding Junie Kim" by Ellen Oh
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.
