FOUNDATION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does foundation mean? 

• FOUNDATION (noun)
  The noun FOUNDATION has 7 senses:

1. the basis on which something is grounded

2. an institution supported by an endowment

3. lowest support of a structure

4. education or instruction in the fundamentals of a field of knowledge

5. the fundamental assumptions from which something is begun or developed or calculated or explained

6. a woman's undergarment worn to give shape to the contours of the body

7. the act of starting something for the first time; introducing something new

  Familiarity information: FOUNDATION used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FOUNDATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The basis on which something is grounded

Classified under:

Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas

Context example:

there is little foundation for his objections

Hypernyms ("foundation" is a kind of...):

relation (an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of two entities or parts together)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "foundation"):

basis; footing; ground (a relation that provides the foundation for something)

grass roots (the essential foundation or source)

Derivation:

found (use as a basis for; found on)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An institution supported by an endowment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("foundation" is a kind of...):

financial institution; financial organisation; financial organization (an institution (public or private) that collects funds (from the public or other institutions) and invests them in financial assets)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "foundation"):

charity (a foundation created to promote the public good (not for assistance to any particular individuals))

Derivation:

found (set up or found)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Lowest support of a structure

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

base; foot; foundation; fundament; groundwork; substructure; understructure

Context example:

he stood at the foot of the tower

Hypernyms ("foundation" is a kind of...):

support (supporting structure that holds up or provides a foundation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "foundation"):

bed (a foundation of earth or rock supporting a road or railroad track)

mat; raft; raft foundation (a foundation (usually on soft ground) consisting of an extended layer of reinforced concrete)

Holonyms ("foundation" is a part of...):

construction; structure (a thing constructed; a complex entity constructed of many parts)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Education or instruction in the fundamentals of a field of knowledge

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

foundation; grounding

Context example:

a good grounding in mathematics

Hypernyms ("foundation" is a kind of...):

education (knowledge acquired by learning and instruction)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The fundamental assumptions from which something is begun or developed or calculated or explained

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

base; basis; cornerstone; foundation; fundament; groundwork

Context example:

the whole argument rested on a basis of conjecture

Hypernyms ("foundation" is a kind of...):

assumption; supposal; supposition (a hypothesis that is taken for granted)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "foundation"):

meat and potatoes (the fundamental part)

Holonyms ("foundation" is a part of...):

explanation (thought that makes something comprehensible)

Derivation:

found (use as a basis for; found on)

Sense 6

Meaning:

A woman's undergarment worn to give shape to the contours of the body

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

foundation; foundation garment

Hypernyms ("foundation" is a kind of...):

undergarment; unmentionable (a garment worn under other garments)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "foundation"):

corset; girdle; stays (a woman's close-fitting foundation garment)

roll-on (a woman's foundation garment rolled on to the hips)

Sense 7

Meaning:

The act of starting something for the first time; introducing something new

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

creation; foundation; founding; initiation; innovation; instauration; institution; introduction; origination

Context example:

the foundation of a new scientific society

Hypernyms ("foundation" is a kind of...):

beginning; commencement; start (the act of starting something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "foundation"):

authorship; paternity (the act of initiating a new idea or theory or writing)

Derivation:

found (set up or lay the groundwork for)

 Context examples 

Against this background, you also have been setting up the foundation of your life for the coming 29 years by responding to a series of tests that Saturn had directed your way.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

But I know the foundation is unjust.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

They talked on; she, in her gently persistent way, returning always to the need of thorough grounding in education and to the advantages of Latin as part of the foundation for any career.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

What a foundation for a career!

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If I once shook the foundations of the sacred confidence and usage, in virtue of which it was given to me, it was lost, and could never be recovered.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The sediment deposited as layers that formed the foundation for Mount Sharp, the mountain found in the middle of the crater today.

(NASA's Curiosity Rover Team Confirms Ancient Lakes on Mars, NASA)

“It’s just the beginning of the journey, but at least we know now, what the foundation is,” he says.

(New Genetic Discovery May Eventually End Premature Birth, VOA)

Stipends or grants-in-aid granted by foundations or institutions to individuals for study.

(Fellowship Program, NCI Thesaurus)

This relationship relates concepts through logical hierarchy and forms the foundation of a taxonomy.

(isa Relationship, NCI Thesaurus)

He said that These were men to whose indefatigable zeal modern philosophers were indebted for most of the foundations of their knowledge.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)