founder
Syllables: found·er/ˈfaʊndəɹ/UK[ˈfaʊ̯n.də]
founder noun: one who founds or establishes (a company, project, organisation, state, etc.).
Noun (1)
founder (plural founders)
- One who founds or establishes (a company, project, organisation, state, etc.).
- The founder of Facebook is Mark Zuckerberg.
- As to eleemoſynary corporations, by the dotation the founder and his heirs are of common right the legal viſitors, to ſee that that property is rightly employed, which would otherwiſe have deſcended to the viſitor himſelf: […]1765, William Blackstone, “Of Corporations”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book I (Of the Rights of Persons), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 469
- Antonyms:
- ruiner
- A common ancestor of some population (especially one with a certain genetic mutation).
- a founder population
- the founder effect
Noun (2)
founder (plural founders)
- The iron worker in charge of the blast furnace and the smelting operation.
- The term 'founder' was applied in the British iron industry long afterwards to the ironworker in charge of the blast furnace and the smelting operation.1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 161
- One who casts metals in various forms; a caster.
- a founder of cannon, bells, hardware, or printing types
Noun (3)
founder (plural founders)
- A severe laminitis of a horse, caused by untreated internal inflammation in the hooves.
Verb
founder (third-person singular simple present founders, present participle foundering, simple past and past participle foundered)
- To flood with water and sink.
- We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship but we saw her sink, and then I understood for the first time what was meant by a ship foundering in the sea.1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC
- This ended, in prolonged solemn tones, like the continual tolling of a bell in a ship that is foundering at sea in a fog—in such tones he commenced reading the following hymn;(...)1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 9, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
- To fall; to stumble and go lame.
- To fail; to miscarry.
- All his tricks founder.1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio)...
- The other ambitions, and much of Prescott's plan, foundered just south of Hatfield that October, when a GNER express derailed on a shattered rail […], plunging the railway into a crisis that led to private track owner Railtrack being put into administration.2024 September 4, Philip Haigh, “Can public-private partnerships be made to deliver?”, in RAIL, number 1017, page 52
- To cause to flood and sink, as a ship.
- We found a strong Tide setting out of the Streights to the Northward, and like to founder our Ship.1697, William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, page 82
- I was amazed when we came among the breakers (which to me seemed large enough to founder our ship), to see with what wondrous dexterity they carried us through them, and ran their canoes on the top of one of those rolling waves […]1744, William Smith, A New Voyage to Guinea, page 167, quoted in The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds Of The Slave Trade, Robert Harms, 2008
- To disable or lame (a horse) by causing internal inflammation and soreness in the feet or limbs.
Noun (4) capitalized: Founder
Founder (plural Founders)
- A Founding Father.
- As the Founders saw it, the great driver of freedom was knowledge.2025 April 26, Simon Schama, “The war on knowledge”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1
founder meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
founder in Hindi
- one who founds, establishes, and erects; one who lays a foundation; an author
- संस्थापक sansthāpak, प्रवर्तक pravartak, संस्थापिका sansthāpikā
founder in Tamil
- நிறுவனர், நிறுவுநர், தோற்றுநர், நிறுவி, தாபகர், ஸ்தாபகர்
founder in Marathi
- संस्थापक, संस्थापिका, संस्थापकाला
founder in Urdu
- one who founds, establishes, and erects; one who lays a foundation; an author
- بانی bānī
More languagesFewer languages
- founder in Bengali
- প্রতিষ্ঠাতা protiśṭhata
- founder in Telugu
- స్థాపకుడు, వ్యవస్థాపకుడు
- founder in Malayalam
- സ്ഥാപകൻ, സ്ഥാപകന്, സ്ഥാപകനെ
- founder in Kannada
- ಸ್ಥಾಪಕ, ಸಂಘಟನೆಯನ್ನು ಹುಟ್ಟುಹಾಕಿದವನು, ಎಡವಿಬೀಳು, ಕುಂಟು
- founder in Punjabi
- ਸੰਸਥਾਪਕ
- founder in Gujarati
- સ્થાપક, સ્થાપકઃ, સ્થાપકને
- founder in Odia
- ପ୍ରତିଷ୍ଠାତା, ପ୍ରତିଷ୍ଠାତାଙ୍କୁ
- founder in Sanskrit
- दातृ
- founder in Nepali
- संस्थापक, स्थापनाकर्ता, संस्थापकलाई
- founder in Arabic
- مُؤَسِّس muʔassis, مُؤَسِّسَة muʔassisa
- founder in Indonesian
- peletak dasar, pendiri
- founder in Persian
- بنیانگذار bonyângozâr, مؤسس mo'asses, بانی bâni, نقش بر آب شدن naqš-e bar âb šodan
- founder in Thai
- ผู้สร้าง pûu-sâang, ผู้ก่อตั้ง pûu-gɔ̀ɔ-dtâng
- founder in Vietnamese
- người sáng lập
Examples of founder in a sentence
- Young people love to idolize their predecessors. [Steve] Jobs was Silicon Valley's idol of choice for decades, but to the next generation of startup founders, his legacy feels about as old as Web 1.0.2022 January 13, Arielle Pardes, “Who Do Young Entrepreneurs Look Up To? Elon Musk”, in Wired, San Francisco, Calif.: Condé Nast...
- Chris Printup, a founder of the streetwear brand Born X Raised, which became a fixture on the Los Angeles fashion scene, died on Wednesday morning at a hospital in Albuquerque.2023 June 28, Livia Albeck-Ripka, “Chris Printup, Founder of Streetwear Brand Born X Raised, Dies at 42”, in The New York Times, New York...
- The sickle cell mutation today can be found in five different haplotypes, leading to the conclusion that the mutation appeared independently five times in five different founders.2006 June 1, Dennis Drayna, “Founder Mutations”, in Scientific American, New York, N.Y.: Springer Nature America, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC...
- Among the Ashkenazi Jews in the positive group, 81 percent had one of the three founder mutations, suggesting that 23andMe's test could be helpful for them.2019 April 16, Heather Murphy, “Don't Count on 23andMe to Detect Most Breast Cancer Risks, Study Warns”, in The New York Times, New York...
Antonyms of founder
Forms of founder
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | founders |
| plural | Founders |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | founders |
| present participle | foundering |
| past participle | foundered |
| past | foundered |
Origin of founder
From Old French fondeur, from Latin fundātor, equivalent to found + -er.
From Middle French fondeur, from Latin fundo (“pour, melt, cast”).
From Middle French fondrer (“send to the bottom”), from Latin fundus (“bottom”).
Words formed from founder
Phrases with founder
Words that rhyme with founder
Questions about founder
- What does founder mean?
- Founder means one who founds or establishes (a company, project, organisation, state, etc.).
- What is founder in Hindi?
- Founder in Hindi is संस्थापक (sansthāpak), प्रवर्तक (pravartak), संस्थापिका (sansthāpikā). See Founder meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use founder in a sentence?
- Young people love to idolize their predecessors. [Steve] Jobs was Silicon Valley's idol of choice for decades, but to the next generation of startup founders, his legacy feels about as old as Web 1.0.
- What part of speech is founder?
- Founder can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce founder?
- Founder is pronounced /ˈfaʊndəɹ/.
- What is the plural of founder?
- The plural of founder is founders.
Words near founder in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: founder (page history and authors); Founder (page history and authors); founder (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); founder (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); founder (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); founder (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); founder (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); founder (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); founder (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); founder (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); दातृ (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); founder (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-founder.ogg.
Cite this entry: “founder.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/founder. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.