Word.ws English Dictionary

foundation stones

foundation stones is the plural of foundation stone.

Meaning of foundation stone

Noun

foundation stone (plural foundation stones)

  1. A stone laid during the construction of a (usually important) building, the laying of which is usually marked by a ceremony.
    • He laid the foundation stone on August 1 1847, and then set around 2,000 workmen loose on the undertaking. The station opened exactly one year later on August 1 1848.2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Chester (1848)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 58
  2. (figuratively) The basis of something.
    • England had been infamously stodgy under Gareth Southgate at Euro 2024, albeit as they reached the final and, if anything, Carsley needed a performance here more than a result. He certainly got that in the first half. A new era has its foundation stone.2024 September 7, David Hytner, “Rice and Grealish start new England era with Nations League victory in Ireland”, in The Guardian

Questions about foundation stones

What is foundation stones the plural of?
Foundation stones is the plural of foundation stone.

Words near foundation stones in the dictionary

  1. foundation garment
  2. foundation garments
  3. foundation model
  4. foundation models
  5. foundation stone
  6. foundation stones
  7. foundational
  8. foundational belief
  9. foundational beliefs
  10. foundational witness
  11. foundational witnesses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: foundation stones (page history and authors); foundation stone (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.

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