fountain

UK/ˈfaʊn.tɪn/[ˈfaʊn.tn̩]

fountain noun: a natural source of water; a spring.

Image: Jonas Bergsten, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

fountain (plural fountains)

(originally) A natural source of water; a spring.
- A little fountaine became a riuer, and there was light, & the Sunne, and much water: this riuer is Eſther, whō the King married and made Queene.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Esther 10:6
Synonyms:

fount, syke, wellspring
An artificial, usually ornamental, water feature (usually in a garden or public place) consisting of one or more streams of water originating from a statue or other structure.
- His house is right beside that fountain on Street 15.
The structure from which an artificial fountain can issue.
- As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain, and he fled away with a cameo note.1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, →OL
A reservoir from which liquid can be drawn.
- They heard her rouse the sleeping servant, and with her enter the kitchen; then the noise of a fire being lighted and the fountain being filled came to the watchers.1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 208
(figuratively) A source or origin of a flow (e.g., of favors or knowledge).
- Nothing will pleaſe ſome Men, but Books ſtuff’d with Antiquity, groaning under the weight of Learned Quotations drawn from the Fountains: And what is all this but Pilfering.1700, Tom Brown, Amusements Serious and Comical, calculated for the Meridian of London, page 5
- My lighter moods are like to these,
  ⁠That out of words a comfort win;
  ⁠But there are other griefs within,
  And tears that at their fountain freeze; […]1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 33
A roundel barry wavy argent and azure.
- Crest : A boar's head couped gold semy of fountains armed gules. Motto : REMIS VELISQUE. Granted by the College of Arms 1966.1928, New England Historic Genealogical Society. Committee on Heraldry, A Roll of Arms
- Argent, seme of fountains on a chief azure a Lorraine cross and an oak leaf of the first. Crest, None. Motto, Able and Ready. The blue of the shield represents Infantry. The fountains are emblematic of Arizona,[…]1953, United States. Department of the Army. Office of Military History, The Army Lineage Book, page 828
A juggling pattern typically done with an even number of props where each prop is caught by the same hand that throws it.
(US) A soda fountain.
- He takes out a soup bowl, fills it with Pepsi from the fountain, and places it carefully on the counter in front of the boy. “That'll be a quarter,” he says professionally.2014, Danielle Sarver Coombs, Bob Batchelor, We Are What We Sell: How Advertising Shapes American Life... and Always Has, page 222
- A Sproke was a soft drink Gloria and I had created with Jimbo’s help at the Banana Shack. It was basically fountain Coke mixed with fountain Sprite.2018, Chris Grabenstein, Sandapalooza Shake-up, New York: Random House, →ISBN, page 67
(US) A drink poured from a soda fountain, or the cup it is poured into.
A ground-based firework that projects sparks similar to a water fountain.
(figuratively) Anything that resembles a fountain in operation.
- Travellers over the London & North Western main line in bygone days will need no reminder of the pattering of cinders on the carriage roofs, the fountains of sparks from the chimneys at night and the distance from which the exhaust of approaching locomotives could be heard, due to the fierceness of...1962 June, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Modern Railways, page 399

Verb

fountain (third-person singular simple present fountains, present participle fountaining, simple past and past participle fountained)

(intransitive) To flow or gush as if from a fountain.
- Lava fountained from the volcano.
- The fireflies swept toward him from all directions, in streams and rivers and currents of light, a vortex a hundred yards across, spiraling into the brighter center. They met over his supine body like ocean breakers, cascading, fountaining into the air.1978, Tom Reamy, Blind Voices

Proper noun capitalized: Fountain

Fountain (countable and uncountable, plural Fountains)

A ghost town in Mendocino County, California, United States.
A city in El Paso County, Colorado, United States, named after Fountain Creek (Arkansas River tributary).
An unincorporated community in Bay County, Florida, United States.
An unincorporated community in Monroe County, Illinois, United States.
A city in Fountain County, Indiana, United States, USA formerly known as Portland.
A village in Mason County, Michigan, United States.
A city in Fillmore County, Minnesota, United States.
A town in Pitt County, North Carolina, United States.
Synonym of Fountaintown, North Carolina.

Synonyms:

Fountaintown, North Carolina
An unincorporated community in Mineral County, West Virginia, United States.
A town in Juneau County, Wisconsin, United States.
A topographic surname.

fountain meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

fountain in Hindi

artificial water feature: सोता sotā, फ़व्वारा favvārā

fountain in Tamil

artificial water feature: ஊற்று ūṟṟu, நீரூற்று nīrūṟṟu
structure from which a fountain issues: நீரூற்று nīrūṟṟu

fountain in Marathi

artificial water feature: कारंजा kārañjā

fountain in Urdu

artificial water feature: فَوَّارَہ favvāra, سوتا sotā, مَنْبَع manba'

More languagesFewer languages

fountain in Bengali: ঝরনা jhorna
fountain in Telugu: ఊట ūṭa
fountain in Malayalam: ഉറവ uṟava
fountain in Kannada: ಮೂಲ mūla
fountain in Punjabi: ਅਨਾਰ anār
fountain in Gujarati: ફુવારો phuvāro
fountain in Odia: ଝର୍ଣା
fountain in Nepali: फव्वारा, फोहरा, फाउन्टेनिङ
fountain in Pashto: شرشره šaršara, فواره fawāra
fountain in Tagalog: bátis
fountain in Arabic: نَافُورَة nāfūra, فَوَّارَة fawwāra
fountain in Malay: air pancut
fountain in Indonesian: air mancur
fountain in Thai: น้ำพุ náam-pú
fountain in Vietnamese: suối nước, đài phun nước
fountain in Myanmar: ရေပန်း repan:

Examples of fountain in a sentence

At the end of the garden there was a beautiful fountain.
I find fountain pens easier to write with than ballpoint pens, but YMMV.
This house has a swimming pool, a tent, a swing set and a fountain in the garden.

All 40 example sentences with fountain

Synonyms of fountain

Forms of fountain

Noun
plural	fountains
Verb
third-person singular present	fountains
present participle	fountaining
past participle	fountained
past	fountained
Proper noun
plural	Fountains

Plural of fountain: fountains

Origin of fountain

From Middle English [Term?]; from Old French fontaine (whence modern fontaine); from Late Latin fontana, from Latin fontanus, fontaneus, adjectives from fons (“source, spring”).

Topographic surname for someone who lived near a fountain, spring or well.

Words formed from fountain

Phrases with fountain

Questions about fountain

What does fountain mean?: Fountain means a natural source of water; a spring.
What is fountain in Hindi?: Fountain in Hindi is सोता (sotā), फ़व्वारा (favvārā). See Fountain meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is fountain?: Fountain can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce fountain?: Fountain is pronounced /ˈfaʊn.tɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of fountain?: The plural of fountain is fountains.

Words near fountain in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: fountain (page history and authors); Fountain (page history and authors); ঝরনা (Bengali) (page history and authors); ఊట (Telugu) (page history and authors); ഉറവ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಮೂಲ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਅਨਾਰ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); fountain (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fountain (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-fountain.ogg.

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