great-grandmother
Americannoun
-
great-grandmothers
plural
Usage
What does great-grandmother mean? A great-grandmother is the mother of a person’s grandparent (the grandmother of a person’s parent). When a mother’s child has their own children, that mother becomes a grandmother. When those children have their own children, she becomes a great-grandmother. Should great-grandmother be capitalized?Great-grandmother should be capitalized when it’s used as a proper name, as in Please tell Great-grandmother that I miss her. But great-grandmother does not need to be capitalized when it’s simply used as a way to refer to her, as in Please tell my great-grandmother that I miss her. Example: My kids were lucky enough to get to know three of their great-grandmothers.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of great-grandmother
First recorded in 1520–30
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:
Winterich’s own children, she told me, treasure a recording of their great-grandmother reading a story, because they would never otherwise have heard what she sounded like.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
That light is what my great-grandmother recognized in Dolly all those years ago.
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026
"Don't be idle: if you can, move," Fava, who recently became a great-grandmother, said in a message to fellow seniors.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
In Philadelphia—where kids are down 6%—Nija Rivera, 39, grew up working class in a row house with her siblings, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
That bangle had been given to her great-grandmother by her mother.
From "Rickshaw Girl" by Mitali Perkins
For these survivors—the grandmothers and great-grandmothers who populate many romantic fantasies—“Italy” seldom meant idyllic country vistas and cardiologists’ dream culinary joys.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026
McDonald’s performance opens a window onto the grandmothers and great-grandmothers whose lives were even more tragically curtailed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2025
And in 1917, her heavily pregnant great-grandmothers “swelled with orange heat, like the fruiting of giant persimmons.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 27, 2023
It was my great-grandmothers, who I never met.
From Salon ● Feb. 4, 2022
The heavy work has all been done by countless great-grandmothers and their mates.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
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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.
