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say it: fown-DAY-shuhn
foundation is a noun meaning "the basis on which something is grounded". It carries 7 recorded senses.
the basis on which something is grounded
“there is little foundation for his objections”
an institution supported by an endowment
lowest support of a structure
“it was built on a base of solid rock”
“he stood at the foot of the tower”
the fundamental assumptions from which something is begun or developed or calculated or explained
“the whole argument rested on a basis of conjecture”
a woman's undergarment worn to give shape to the contours of the body
the act of starting something for the first time; introducing something new
“she looked forward to her initiation as an adult”
“the foundation of a new scientific society”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for foundation come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.