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

"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

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

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 23, 2025

For years, Barbara Schmidt’s family feared an illness was behind a pattern of terrifying falls that repeatedly landed the 83-year-old great-grandmother in surgery with broken bones.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 22, 2025

Back when my great-grandmother passed we were all at my grandmother’s house, trying to clean it up so she could come home to a house of happiness.

From "Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago" by LeAlan Jones