great-grandmother

IPA/ˌɡreɪtˈɡræn.mʌð.ər/
KK[ɡrˌetɡrˈændmˌʌθɚ]IPA/ˌɡreɪtˈɡræm.mʌð.ər/

great-grandmother — noun

1. your grandparent's mother, who is two generations older than you in your family.

1.nounA2
Definition

your grandparent's mother, who is two generations older than you in your family.

Example

My great-grandmother lived to be ninety-eight and had seven children.

collocation: live to be [age]

The old photograph shows my great-grandmother as a young woman in 1920.

possessive: my great-grandmother as [role]

Common collocations
  • great-grandmother's + [house / diary / recipe / photo / village / dress]
  • my / your / his / her / our / their + great-grandmother
  • [name]'s + great-grandmother
  • great-grandmother + on + [my mother's / my father's] + side
Synonyms
  • grandmother

    one generation closer — the mother of your parent, not your grandparent

  • ancestor

    broader term covering any relative from past generations, not specifically two generations above

  • forebear

    more formal and literary, any ancestor without specifying the generational distance

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

great-grandmother + of + [person]

possessive: [pronoun]'s + great-grandmother

Usage Note

This noun is usually used with a possessive (my, your, his, her, our, their, or a name followed by 's) because each person has a specific great-grandmother.

Common Mistakes

My greatgrandmother told me stories about the war.
My great-grandmother told me stories about the war.
The word requires a hyphen between 'great' and 'grandmother'.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Great-grandmother refers specifically to the mother of one's grandparent — two generations above the speaker. Grandmother is closer (one generation above — the mother of a parent) and is far more common in everyday speech. Grandparent is gender-neutral and covers both grandmothers and grandfathers at one generation above. Ancestor is the broadest term, covering anyone in a family line from whom one is descended, regardless of distance. Forebear is a more formal, literary synonym for ancestor. In a family tree, you would point to the second level above you for great-grandmother, whereas grandmother occupies the first level above. For everyday conversation, 'my grandmother' is typical unless the specific generational distance matters.

grandmother ↗grandparent ↗ancestor ↗forebear ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • on my mother's side
  • on my father's side
  • passed down from

Prepositions

  • of
  • on ... side

Etymology

Old EnglishOld FrenchEnglish

The word is formed by adding the prefix 'great-' (indicating one extra generation removed) to 'grandmother'. The prefix comes from Old English 'grēat' meaning 'large' or 'big', used here to extend the generational distance. 'Grandmother' entered English from Old French 'grand mere', where 'grand' means 'big' and 'mere' means 'mother'.