foundational

adjective

foun·​da·​tion·​al fau̇n-ˈdā-sh(ə-)nəl 

: of, relating to, or forming or serving as a base or foundation : fundamental

foundational principles/doctrines

These foundational volumes proved to be, each in its own way, enabling gestures for the growth of sophisticated theories and critical practices in African, Caribbean, and African American literatures.

—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Property was, in a sense, foundational to culture, since English political economy rested on the private ownership of land, and the political economy, in turn, largely structured social relations.

—Jill Lepore

Philosophy is a foundational discipline. Not only does it do the spadework that makes the construction of other disciplines possible; it also pays constant attention to the foundations of those disciplines as they are practiced.

—Cognitive Science

foundationally adverb

Examples of foundational in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This is when models take in large-scale data to learn to predict which word comes next in an input, building foundational representations of language. — Greta Reich, USA Today, 6 Sep. 2026

Free and fair elections are foundational to our representative democracy. — Los Angeles Times, 6 Sep. 2026

But the president disputed this foundational concept in monetary policy. — Josh Boak, Fortune, 5 Sep. 2026

When a conversation gets long, my architecture heavily prioritizes the text from the immediate previous turn over the foundational instructions given at the beginning of the chat. — New Atlas, 4 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1657, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for foundational

• formational
• gestational
• gradational
• locational
• mutational
• notational
• relational
• rotational
• sensational
• translational
• vibrational
• vocational