founder

The word “founder” means a person who establishes an organization, company, or institution. In plain terms, someone who starts an organization, or as a verb, to sink or collapse into failure.

“Founder” is pronounced FOWN-duh (/ˈfaʊ̯n.dɚ/ in IPA).

Here is “founder” used in a sentence: “The founder of the company still runs it today.”

Depending on how it is used, “founder” can be a noun and a verb.

The word “founder” comes from Latin. From Old French fondeur, from Latin fundator — related to "found" in the sense of "establish.".

“Founder” is a fairly common word in modern English.

“Founder” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a person who establishes an organization, company, or institution.

This is a classic mix-up. A founder is someone who establishes an organisation; as a verb, to founder means to fail or sink, as a ship founders. To flounder is different, meaning to struggle clumsily or thrash about, like a flounder, the flatfish. A business can flounder for years before it founders.

A founder is a person who establishes an organisation, whether alone or as its driving force. A co-founder is one of two or more people who start it together, sharing that role. If a single person launches a company they are the founder; if several do it jointly, each is a co-founder.

A founder is the person who created the company, a fact that never changes. A CEO is whoever currently runs it as chief executive. Often the founder is also the first CEO, but a company can later hire an outside CEO while the founder stays on, steps back, or moves aside entirely.

A founder is the person behind an organisation's beginning, the individual who set up a charity, launched a start-up, or established a school or institution. For instance, the person who starts a bakery and builds it from nothing is its founder, credited with bringing the whole enterprise into being.