founder
1 Americannoun
verb (used without object)
-
founders,
present (3rd person singular)
-
foundered,
past participle, past
-
foundering
present participle
-
(of a ship, boat, etc.) to fill with water and sink.
-
to fall or sink down, as buildings, ground, etc..
Built on a former lake bed, the building has foundered nearly ten feet.
-
to become wrecked; fail utterly.
The project foundered because public support was lacking.
-
to stumble, break down, or go lame, as a horse.
His mount foundered on the rocky path.
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to become ill from overeating.
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Veterinary Pathology. (of a horse) to suffer from laminitis.
verb (used with object)
-
founders,
present (3rd person singular)
-
foundered,
past participle, past
-
foundering
present participle
-
to cause to fill with water and sink.
Rough seas had foundered the ship in mid-ocean.
-
Veterinary Pathology. to cause (a horse) to break down, go lame, or suffer from laminitis.
noun
noun
verb
-
(of a ship) to sink
-
to break down or fail
the project foundered
-
to sink into or become stuck in soft ground
-
to fall in or give way; collapse
-
(of a horse) to stumble or go lame
-
archaic (of animals, esp livestock) to become ill from overeating
noun
noun
noun
Usage
Founder is sometimes wrongly used where flounder is meant: this unexpected turn of events left him floundering (not foundering )
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
foundersimple
-
founderssimple
-
have founderedperfect
-
has founderedperfect
-
am founderingprogressive
-
are founderingprogressive
-
is founderingprogressive
-
have been founderingperfect progressive
-
has been founderingperfect progressive
Past
-
founderedsimple
-
had founderedperfect
-
was founderingprogressive
-
were founderingprogressive
-
had been founderingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of founder1
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English found(o)ur, foundere, fundre “original builder of a city, church, castle, or city; founder of a country,” from Anglo-French fundur, from Old French fondeor, from Latin fundātōr-, stem of fundātor; see origin at found 1; see also -er 1 ( def. )
Origin of founder2
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English foundren, funder, fonder, from Old French fondrer “to plunge to the bottom, submerge,” from Vulgar Latin fundorāre (unattested), derivative of fundor-, an s -stem noun interpreted as stem of Latin fundus, actually an o -stem noun (stem fund- ) “bottom”
Origin of founder3
First recorded in 1400–50; Middle English foundour, founder, from Old French fondeur, from fondre “to melt, cast”; see origin at found 3, -er 1
Explanation
The person who creates an organization or a company is known as the founder. Founder is also a verb meaning "fail miserably," which is something a company's founder hopes the company will never do. As a noun, founder means "the beginner or originator of something." You might talk about the founder of a nation, the founder of club, or the founder of a website. As a verb, founder can mean “stumble,” like when you trip and fall, but more generally it means "collapse or fall apart." A sports team might founder by slumping on a ten-game losing streak; a ship that sinks in a bad storm can be said to have foundered at sea.
Vocabulary lists containing founder
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Creating an asset inventory should be the first step, said Michael DeMassa, a certified financial planner and founder of Forza Wealth Management.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
He spent time working out of now-convicted crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s compound in the Bahamas and then at OpenAI in San Francisco.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Meta founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was expected to testify at some point, as well.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
Grytz is also founder and CSO of Electric Indigo, a UAB startup in which UAB holds an ownership interest.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
A legend exists concerning the founder of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Isolt Sayre, and a Horned Serpent.
From "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by J.K. Rowling
Its owner Leonid Radvinsky, who died earlier this year aged 43, bought the site from its British founders in 2018.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
The festival’s founders boast quite an industry lineage, having met on the set of a Sofia Coppola movie, where they were production assistants.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2026
“Allow illiquid founders to pledge shares with a loan from the government to pay tax,” he wrote.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
For anyone watching founders seemingly blow up on social media overnight, she says it's important to remember that the viral moment is often the part of the story everyone sees rather than the beginning.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
Dr. Holyoke was more than a beloved physician; he was one of the founders of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston.
From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham
A plan to convert it to a private school foundered during Covid and Sebastian said it is considering next steps.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
Instead, they foundered in the breeze, squeezing out whatever bitter juice was left in a dirge that would prove to drag on for at least another week.
From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2026
And for decades, every attempt to create legal access has foundered on the rocky shoals of property rights and lumbering bureaucracy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 26, 2025
Plans to introduce a universal healthcare system also foundered in the legislature, while unemployment and interest rates both soared.
From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2024
By the end of the year, the campaign foundered.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
The commitments from senior management and an influential figure like Ma, who is no longer on the company’s board, helped to shore up Alibaba’s foundering share price.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026
But by the time Polanco became a free agent last winter, his career was foundering.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2025
The unusually large, half-point rate reduction is expected to be the first in a series of cuts, aimed at helping keep the economy and the labor market from foundering.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2024
What’s more, in the Spy magazine era, Mr. Trump was just a local nuisance, a braggart presiding over a foundering casino-hotel empire.
From Salon ● Feb. 9, 2024
The Captains of the West were foundering in a gathering sea.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
