great-grandmother

American  

[greyt-gran-muhth-er, -grand-, -gram-] / ˌgreɪtˈgrænˌmʌð ər, -ˈgrænd-, -ˈgræm- /

noun

1. a grandmother of one's father or mother.

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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.

Etymology

Origin of great-grandmother

First recorded in 1520–30

Example Sentences

My Italian great-grandmother moved into the English Tudor in the 1940s on a street lined by deodars and palm trees.

From Los Angeles Times

After my mom’s father died when she was young, she and her sister were raised there by their mother and aunt, who taught at the nearby elementary schools, and my great-grandmother, whose homemade bread and spaghetti and meatballs filled the kitchen and whose basement was stocked with fruit preserves from the apricot, fig and peach trees in the backyard.

From Los Angeles Times

The house was the center of some of my first memories: hiding behind the living room window curtain to play hide-and-seek, tumbling outside in the grass and looking up to see the mountain peaks in the distance; running through my great-grandmother’s garden.

From Los Angeles Times

My mom, dad, newborn sister and I moved into the home after my great-grandmother died.

From Los Angeles Times

Soskin’s great-grandmother, Leontine Breaux Allen, was born into slavery in Louisiana and freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.

From Los Angeles Times