grandfather

Syllables: grand·fa·ther/ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌfɑːðə(r)//ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌfɑðɚ/

grandfather noun: a father of someone's parent.

Image: Diego Grez, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

grandfather (plural grandfathers)

A father of someone's parent.
- Grandfather, Father, and Son. The Father diſſeiſeth the Grandfather and dies, the Son endows the Mother, the Grandfather dies, the Son may enter upon the Mother; for he hath a new Right deſcended to him from the Grandfather, for the Grandfather might have entred upon the Mother, ſo ſhall his Heir.1662, [Edmund] Plowden, “Entry”, in H. B., transl., Plovvdens Quæries: Or, A Moot-book of Choice Cases, Useful for the Young Students of the Common Law: Englished, Methodized, and Enlarged, London...
- Lineal conſanguinity is that which ſubſists between perſons, of whom one is deſcended in a direct line from the other: as between John Stiles (the propoſitus in the table of conſanguinity) and his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, and ſo upwards in the direct aſcending line; or between...1766, William Blackstone, “Of Title by Descent”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book II (Of the Rights of Things), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 203
Antonyms:

grandmother, grandson, abuela, baba, babcia, babulya /babulia (chiefly in Eastern European (especially Russian) contexts), babushka, babusia, babusya /babusia, beldame
(broadly) A male forefather.
- Brethren: Here is the pipe which your grandfathers used to smoke with when they met together in councils of peace. And here is some of that good tobacco, prepared for our grandfathers from God:—When you shall taste of it, you shall feel it through all your body; and it will put you in remembrance...1758 November 25, [Israel Daniel Rupp], “[No. XI.] Post’s Second Journal, 1758. The Second Journal of Christian Frederick Post, on a Message from the Governor of Pennsylvania, to the Indians of the...
Synonyms:

highfather, grandsire
The archived older version of a file that immediately preceded the father file.
- File C is the grandfather because it was used to create file B.1983, Computerworld, volume 17, number 50, page 22
- Three generations of file are usually kept, being the grandfather, father and son files.2004, Ray Bradley, The Ultimate Computing Glossary for Advanced Level, page 31

Verb (1)

grandfather (third-person singular simple present grandfathers, present participle grandfathering, simple past and past participle grandfathered)

(transitive) To be, or act as, a grandfather to.

Verb (2)

grandfather (third-person singular simple present grandfathers, present participle grandfathering, simple past and past participle grandfathered)

(US, transitive) To retain discontinued laws or rules for (an object, individual or organization previously affected by them).
- Had the original work been permitted, it would be grandfathered into any code changes each time they occurred, Arvada officials said. The latest came in 2006.2009 June 19, David Migoya, “Arvada homes haunted by past due code violations”, in The Denver Post, Denver, Colo.: Digital First Media, published 6 May 2016 (update), →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the...
- Old power plants are sometimes grandfathered from having to meet new clean air requirements.2013 October 22, Alan Greenblatt, “The Racial History of the Grandfather Clause”, in NPR, archived from the original on 30 Mar 2019
Synonyms:

grandfather in

grandfather meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

grandfather in Hindi

grandfather (from either side): दादा dādā, नाना nānā

grandfather in Tamil

grandfather (from either side): தாத்தா tāttā, பாட்டன் pāṭṭaṉ

grandfather in Marathi

grandfather (from either side): आजोबा ājobā, आबा ābā

grandfather in Urdu

grandfather (from either side): دادا dādā, نانا nānā

More languagesFewer languages

grandfather in Bengali: পরদাদা pordada, ঠাকুরদা দাদু ṭhakurda, দাদা dada, নানা nana
grandfather in Telugu: తాతయ్య tātayya, తాత tāta
grandfather in Malayalam: മുത്തച്ഛന് muttacchaṉ, അപ്പൂപ്പന് appūppaṉ
grandfather in Kannada: ಅಜ್ಜ ajja
grandfather in Punjabi: ਦਾਦਾ dādā, ਦਾਦੇ dāde
grandfather in Gujarati: નાનો nāno, દાદો dādo
grandfather in Odia: ଜେଜେବାପା jejebāpā
grandfather in Sanskrit: मातामह mātāmaha
grandfather in Sinhala: පිතාමහ pitāmaha, මිති miti
grandfather in Assamese: ককা koka
grandfather in Nepali: हजुरबा hajurbā, हजुरबुवा hajurbuwā
grandfather in Pashto: نیکه nika
grandfather in Tagalog: lolo, ingkong, lelong, apo
grandfather in Arabic: جَدّ jadd
grandfather in Malay: datuk
grandfather in Indonesian: kakek, engkong
grandfather in Thai: ปู่ bpùu, ตา dtaa, ก๋ง gǒng
grandfather in Vietnamese: ông, ôông
grandfather in Myanmar: အဘိုး a.bhui:, ဘိုးဘိုး bhui:bhui:
Kashmiri: بُڈؠ بَب buḍ' bab

Examples of grandfather in a sentence

Perhaps I looked too greedy—Grandfather threatened to throw the pudding out of the window.1965 March 25, Richard Willstätter, “My Ancestors”, in Lilli S[chwenk] Hornig, transl., edited by Arthur Stoll, From My Life: The Memoirs...
Both paternal and maternal grandfathers were highly involved in various facets of adolescents' lives, with maternal grandfathers providing more support in general[…].2016, Jo-Pei Tan, Ann Buchanan, “Links between Grandfather Involvement and Adolescent Well-being in England and Wales”, in Ann Buchanan...
Brethren: Here is the pipe which your grandfathers used to smoke with when they met together in councils of peace.1758 November 25, [Israel Daniel Rupp], “[No. XI.] Post’s Second Journal, 1758. The Second Journal of Christian Frederick Post, on a...
The file from which the father was developed with the transaction files of the appropriate day is the grandfather.2007, O. Ray Whittington, Patrick R. Delaney, Wiley CPA Exam Review 2008: Auditing and Attestation, page 556:

All 40 example sentences with grandfather

Synonyms of grandfather

29 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

grandmother
grandson
abuela
baba
babcia
babulya /babulia (chiefly in Eastern European (especially Russian) contexts)
babushka
babusia
babusya /babusia
bubbe

10 more antonymsFewer antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of grandfather

Forms of grandfather

Noun
plural	grandfathers
Verb
third-person singular present	grandfathers
present participle	grandfathering
past participle	grandfathered
past	grandfathered

Plural of grandfather: grandfathers

Origin of grandfather

The noun is derived from Middle English grandfadre, graundfadir, graunfadir, grauntfader, and other forms, from graunt (“big, large; great, important”) + fā̆der (“male parent, father; remoter male ancestor”), probably modelled after Middle French grandpere, grant pere (“male parent; remoter male ancestor”) (whence French grand-père); the English word is analysable as grand- + father. Superseded earlier eldfather, elderfather. The verb is derived from the noun.

From grandfather clause: see grandfather (etymology 1) and clause.

Words formed from grandfather

Phrases with grandfather

Questions about grandfather

What does grandfather mean?: Grandfather means a father of someone's parent.
What is grandfather in Hindi?: Grandfather in Hindi is दादा (dādā), नाना (nānā). See Grandfather meaning in Hindi.
How do you use grandfather in a sentence?: Perhaps I looked too greedy—Grandfather threatened to throw the pudding out of the window.
What part of speech is grandfather?: Grandfather can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce grandfather?: Grandfather is pronounced /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌfɑːðə(r)/ (UK).
What is the plural of grandfather?: The plural of grandfather is grandfathers.

Words near grandfather in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: grandfather (page history and authors); ಅಜ್ಜ (Kannada) (page history and authors); हजुरबा (Nepali) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-grandfather.ogg, en-us-grandfather.ogg, en-au-grandfather.ogg.

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