The kanji 婆婆 primarily means "old woman," "grandmother," or "female servant." It denotes an elderly female figure, often with connotations of experience, caregiving, or service.

・On-yomi (音読み): バ (ba) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): ばあ (baa - grandmother, sometimes shortened to ば (ba))

⚫︎ お婆さん Translation: Grandmother / Old woman. ⚫︎ 婆さん Translation: Old woman (informal). This is often used as a familiar or somewhat affectionate term. ⚫︎ お婆ちゃん Translation: Grandma (more affectionate than お婆さん)

The kanji 婆婆 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, けいせいもじ). It is composed of the semantic component 女 (woman, おんな), which provides the meaning, and the phonetic component 波 (ha, は), which contributes to the sound. This indicates that it originally meant "an old woman" and the sound was taken from the character for "wave".