as in fathers
a person who is several generations earlier in an individual's line of descent
this tradition has been passed down from our pioneer grandfathers
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Recent Examples of grandfathers
One of my grandfathers was born to Greek immigrants from a village in the mountains above Sparta, the other to Jewish immigrants from what is now Belarus.
—
Yoni Appelbaum, The Atlantic, 8 June 2026
Opponents hope to negotiate a compromise that grandfathers in existing applicants.
—Joe Rubin, Sacbee.com, 31 May 2026
Homer is named after both of his grandfathers—Homer Gere and James Lowell—while his third name comes from Gere’s Buddhist background.
—Bailey Bujnosek, InStyle, 27 May 2026
And if the cabinet grandfathers only the HS classes of 2024 and 2025 while applying the new rule to 2026 graduates, an entire cohort gets jammed onto the same clock as players one and two years older—a cliff disguised as a transition.
—Daryl G. Jones, Sportico.com, 15 May 2026
The captains were the fathers, or at least the grandfathers, of this genre.
—Literary Hub, 21 Apr. 2026
Her grandfathers were military.
—Seth Abramovitch, HollywoodReporter, 7 Apr. 2026
College-age amateurs competing alongside former champions old enough to be their grandfathers is a longstanding Masters tradition.
—Jack Leo, AJC.com, 4 Apr. 2026
Robert Pelot, the owner of Pelot’s Rexall Pharmacy, said it’s been in his family since one of his great-grandfathers moved to the Bradenton area from Indiana in the late 1800s.
—Amaia Gavica, Miami Herald, 6 Mar. 2026
Yoni Appelbaum, The Atlantic, 8 June 2026
Opponents hope to negotiate a compromise that grandfathers in existing applicants.
—Joe Rubin, Sacbee.com, 31 May 2026
Homer is named after both of his grandfathers—Homer Gere and James Lowell—while his third name comes from Gere’s Buddhist background.
—Bailey Bujnosek, InStyle, 27 May 2026
And if the cabinet grandfathers only the HS classes of 2024 and 2025 while applying the new rule to 2026 graduates, an entire cohort gets jammed onto the same clock as players one and two years older—a cliff disguised as a transition.
—Daryl G. Jones, Sportico.com, 15 May 2026
The captains were the fathers, or at least the grandfathers, of this genre.
—Literary Hub, 21 Apr. 2026
Her grandfathers were military.
—Seth Abramovitch, HollywoodReporter, 7 Apr. 2026
College-age amateurs competing alongside former champions old enough to be their grandfathers is a longstanding Masters tradition.
—Jack Leo, AJC.com, 4 Apr. 2026
Robert Pelot, the owner of Pelot’s Rexall Pharmacy, said it’s been in his family since one of his great-grandfathers moved to the Bradenton area from Indiana in the late 1800s.
—Amaia Gavica, Miami Herald, 6 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for grandfathers
Noun
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Blair Miller and Johnathon Bobbitt-Miller, the adoptive fathers of Harmony's brother Jamison, shared a statement following the Supreme Court's decision.—
Matt Schooley,
CBS News,
11 June 2026
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Children may not resemble either parent, leading to a parent being mistaken for a nanny (with mothers) or a mentor (with fathers) when in public.—
Geoffrey Greif,
Baltimore Sun,
11 June 2026
Noun
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Our ancestors’ genomes were built through successive waves of gene transfers.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
11 June 2026
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Drawing on generations of Chinatown family lore and silences, See turns China City’s vanished streets and her ancestors’ immigrant gambles into a historical fiction layered with stories of survival and belonging.—
Emily St. Martin,
Los Angeles Times,
11 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Grandfathers.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/grandfathers. Accessed 15 Jun. 2026.
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