Word.ws English Dictionary

grandfathering

UK/ˈɡɹandfɑːðəɹɪŋ/

grandfathering noun: exemption from new legislation or regulations. Also the present participle and gerund of grandfather.

Noun

grandfathering (usually uncountable, plural grandfatherings)

  1. (usually) Exemption from new legislation or regulations.
    • The grandfathering of boundaries has been, on average, a pacifying development […]2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 311
    • And on Monday, an appeals court in Massachusetts said that it would no longer use the term “grandfathering” because “it has racist origins.”[2020 August 4, Azi Paybarah, “Massachusetts Court Won’t Use Term ‘Grandfathering,’ Citing Its Racist Origins”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

Also used as

grandfathering is also the present participle and gerund of grandfather.

Forms of grandfathering

pluralgrandfatherings

Origin of grandfathering

See grandfather.

Phrases with grandfathering

Questions about grandfathering

What does grandfathering mean?
Grandfathering means exemption from new legislation or regulations.
What part of speech is grandfathering?
Grandfathering is a noun.
How do you pronounce grandfathering?
Grandfathering is pronounced /ˈɡɹandfɑːðəɹɪŋ/ (UK).
What is the plural of grandfathering?
The plural of grandfathering is grandfatherings.

Words near grandfathering in the dictionary

  1. grandfather's clocks
  2. grandfather-in-law
  3. grandfathered
  4. grandfathered in
  5. grandfatherhood
  6. grandfathering
  7. grandfathering in
  8. grandfatherings
  9. grandfatherish
  10. grandfatherism
  11. grandfatherless

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: grandfathering (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:

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