founding father

British  

noun

1. (often capitals) a person who founds or establishes an important institution, esp a member of the US Constitutional Convention (1787)

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

founding father

This was radical stuff in 1776, when Abigail Adams, the redoubtable wife of John, the founding father and future president, was pleading with her husband to “remember the ladies.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026

Dawn newspaper - the oldest in Pakistan, founded in 1941 by the country's founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah - has taken a financial hit for its reporting.

From BBC ● Jan. 29, 2026

Biographer Ron Chernow calls Washington’s decision to free his slaves “glorious. . . . He did what no other founding father dared to do.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 25, 2026

Perhaps they will invoke the advice of one founding father, Benjamin Franklin, who wrote that "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."

From Salon ● Apr. 6, 2025

In scientific terms, though, Tyson is regarded as the founding father of comparative anatomy, which looks at the physical relationships between different species.

From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin