Word.ws English Dictionary

grand-mother

grand-mother is the obsolete form of grandmother.

Meaning of grandmother

Noun

grandmother (plural grandmothers)

  1. A mother of someone's parent.
    • "It's a nightingale floor," our grandmother told us. "It warns us of thieves in the night."2018, Michael Ondaatje, Warlight, →ISBN, page 13
  2. A female ancestor or progenitor.
    • […] man may admit that his grandfathers and grandmothers were mon[keys a]nd monkeyesses if he want^([sic]) to; that is his privilege.1923 May 17, “ […] Advertiser and Mr. Bryan”, in The Progressive Age, Scottsboro, Ala.: James S. Benson, page [4]
  3. In Amazonian shamanism and related contexts, a reverential name for the ayahuasca vine or brew, symbolizing its role as a wise, guiding spirit.
    • "Enter ayahuasca, the mystical grandmother of the psychedelic family, a beacon of profound spiritual experiences"2025, AJ Murillo, The Beginner's Guide to Ego Death Expand Your Mind Through Psychedelic Exploration, →ISBN, page 125

Forms of grand-mother

pluralgrand-mothers

Questions about grand-mother

What is grand-mother the obsolete form of?
Grand-mother is the obsolete form of grandmother.

Words near grand-mother in the dictionary

  1. grand-ducal
  2. grand-duke
  3. grand-dukes
  4. grand-guard
  5. grand-guards
  6. grand-mother
  7. grand-mothers
  8. grand-parent
  9. grand-parented
  10. grand-parenting
  11. grand-parents

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: grand-mother (page history and authors); grandmother (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “grand-mother.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/grand-mother. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.