great-grandparent
Americannoun
Usage
What does great-grandparent mean? A great-grandparent is the parent of a person’s grandparent (the grandparent of a person’s parent). When a parent’s child has children, that parent becomes a grandparent. When those children have children, the grandparent becomes a great-grandparent. Great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers are great-grandparents. In your family tree, you have four grandparents and eight great-grandparents. Example: My kids were lucky enough to get to know three of their great-grandparents.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of great-grandparent
First recorded in 1880–85
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:
The kind of people who have the time and the desire to wage a culture war on schools tend to be more of the grandparent or even great-grandparent age.
From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2023
In addition to his brother, Jackson is survived by his parents, grandparents, a great-grandparent and several aunts and uncles, among other loved ones.
From Fox News ● Dec. 2, 2021
You just do it by comparing DNA instead of last names or a common great-grandparent.
From Slate ● Jun. 24, 2021
Both are grandparents and Trevor is a great-grandparent.
From BBC ● Dec. 24, 2020
“My grandparent, too. My great-grandparent were less even than that.”
From "A Place to Belong" by Cynthia Kadohata
Boyd’s great-grandparents, August and Antonia Maternowski, purchased Union in 1918 and ran it with the help of their 12 children.
From Salon ● Mar. 10, 2026
Third-degree relatives, such as cousins or great-grandparents and great-grandchildren, share one eighth.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 19, 2026
"I wanted to remind people of the narrative of our grandmothers, grandfathers and great-grandparents, who throughout my childhood said that war is terrifying," the 28-year-old, who goes by the nickname Noi, told AFP.
From Barron's ● Feb. 13, 2026
My parents were divorced, as were both sets of my grandparents and even some great-grandparents.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 2, 2026
The parents of a child provided, on average, half the content of that feature; the grandparents, a quarter; the great-grandparents, an eighth—and so forth, all the way back to the most distant ancestor.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
