Refers to one's own great-grandfather or can be used as a respectful term for an elderly man of that generation.
My great-grandfather was born in the Meiji era.
The old stories I heard from my great-grandfather are interesting.
Refers to a great-grandmother, the female counterpart of ひいおじいさん.
Means grandfather or an elderly man; ひいおじいさん is one generation further back.
Kanji spelling using 曾; rarely used in modern writing.
Kanji spelling with 祖父; very rare and may be encountered in older texts.
Variant kanji spelling using 曽; extremely rare.
Compound of ひい (great-) and おじいさん (grandfather). The prefix ひい indicates one more generation removed.