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.
-
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:
The man who has made a career out of baffling other people seems genuinely baffled himself, reduced to explaining the word “can” to the founder of Theranos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Hayes is the founder and a managing member of hedge fund Great Hill Capital, and he was conveying his contrarian views on David Lin’s podcast, which first aired Tuesday.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026
Luo, a divorcee, was the founder of a Manhattan-based nonprofit that said it produced video interviews with economists and environmentalists.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
"Losing such a size of forest every year is a disaster," said Sam Nguiffo, a lawyer and founder of the Centre for Environment and Development in Cameroon.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
Chess reached for Mom’s phone and typed in “Boy Scout founder spy butterflies.”
From "The Strangers" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Nxum, which is offering to sell 10% to other investors, says it is the “strategic media infrastructure layer behind Tether” and says the founders will keep 65% of the company.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
After their success with ‘Sinners,’ The Envelope asked Proximity Media founders Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler and Sev Ohanian about the company’s past, present and future.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
Fintech founders have caught on to how Americans are altering their financial habits, and they’ve created new products to try to meet the moment.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
By the 1980s, he had become one of the founders of the Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute at The Open University in Milton Keynes.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
We were better equipped than many founders of dynasties had been when they walked north to dethrone an emperor; they had been peasants like us.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
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
Earlier efforts to establish a U.S. rare-earth industry foundered because China has flooded the market, undermining the business case.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 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
His business foundered when the market collapsed. flout/flaunt.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
It mentions no relationships other than his two marriages and affords no insight into the foundering of his first, with Laurie Lennard, an environmental activist and producer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
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
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 Shadow of a Doubt,” a full-length 1901 play that got close to a Broadway opening before foundering under murky circumstances.
From New York Times ● Aug. 23, 2023
His knights rode destriers, and the big warhorses were foundering in the snow.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
