Meaning & use
great-great-aunt
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Meaning
nouncountable
The sister of one of your great-grandparents, or the wife of a brother of one of your great-grandparents.
Grammar: Countable noun: you can say 'a great-great-aunt' or 'two great-great-aunts'.
Patterns
- someone's great-great-aunt
- a great-great-aunt of someone's
My great-great-aunt lived to be 102 years old.
She inherited a necklace from her great-great-aunt.
I never met my great-great-aunt, but I've seen photos of her.
Word forms
| plural | great-great-aunts |
|---|
Common combinations
- my great-great-aunt
- My great-great-aunt used to tell stories about the old country.
- her great-great-aunt
- Her great-great-aunt was a famous singer in the 1920s.
- their great-great-aunt
- Their great-great-aunt left them a small cottage by the sea.
- a distant great-great-aunt
- He discovered that a distant great-great-aunt had been a suffragette.
Synonyms and how they differ
- great-aunt
- This means the sister of your grandparent, one generation closer than a great-great-aunt.
Word family
- great-great-uncle noun
- The brother of one of your great-grandparents, or the husband of a sister of one of your great-grandparents.
- great-aunt noun
- The sister of one of your grandparents.
- great-grandparent noun
- The parent of one of your grandparents.
Commonly confused: great-great-aunt or great-aunt?
great-great-aunt vs great-aunt
A great-aunt is your grandparent's sister; a great-great-aunt is your great-grandparent's sister, so she is one generation further back.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'great-great-aunt' correctly?
Choose one answer.
A great-great-aunt is the sister of a great-grandparent, so option 1 is correct. Option 0 describes a great-aunt, option 2 describes an aunt, and option 3 describes a niece.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “great-great-aunt”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.