great-grandmother
Americannoun
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"Fishing folk mainly," she says, but her great-grandmother opened the village's first hotel, an irony not lost on her given her years-long campaign against over-reliance on tourism.
From BBC • Feb. 25, 2026
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 • Jan. 7, 2026
One of Barnett’s previous clients was Alice Marie Johnson, a great-grandmother serving a life sentence for a first-time federal drug offense; Trump commuted her sentence in 2018 before fully pardoning her in 2020.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 12, 2025
His great-grandmother, Hernandez, said she still thinks of him every day.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 30, 2025
Knowing my great-grandmother, she probably told the dog, “Go on, boy. Wake the dead.”
From "Gone Crazy in Alabama" by Rita Williams-Garcia
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.
