Foundation

How to spell foundation

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce foundation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does foundation mean?

1. nounThe solid base on which a building rests, or the underlying basis of something.
2. nounAn organisation established and funded to support charitable or research work.

Foundation in a sentence

• The builders poured concrete for the foundation before winter set in.

• The foundation awards grants to medical researchers each year.

• A clear set of figures gives the report a solid foundation.

• He left most of his estate to a children's foundation.

Where does foundation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin verb fundare, meaning 'to lay a base for' or 'to establish', which was built on fundus, the noun for the 'bottom' or 'lowest part' of something. From fundare came the Latin noun fundatio, describing the act of founding or the base that results from it. English took the word in during the 1300s through Old French fondacion, originally in the very concrete sense of the solid base on which a building stands. Over time it broadened to cover anything that underlies or supports a structure, an argument, or an organisation, and by the modern era it also named a charitable institution set up with an endowment. The shared fundus root still surfaces in relatives like 'fund' and 'fundamental', and the steady 'ou' spelling, rather than a simple 'u', is the small trap that catches writers.

How the word is built

• found- (from Latin fundus: bottom, base)
• -ation (noun of action/result)