founders 1 of 2

noun

plural of founder
as in creators
a person who establishes a whole new field of endeavor Maria Montessori was the founder of an educational system dedicated to maximizing a child's creative potential

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

founders

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of founder
1
as in flops
to be unsuccessful the theater company foundered after its corporate funding dried up

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2
as in collapses
to fall down or in as a result of physical pressure the twin towers started to sway and suddenly foundered

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of founders
Noun
DataSnipper’s founders brought her in as CEO themselves in June 2023. — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 1 Oct. 2026 Created by founders Julian Hakim and Aram Baloyan, who grew up in the border region, the first Taco Stand opened in La Jolla, California in 2013. — Connie Ogle, Miami Herald, 30 Sep. 2026 MacroCycle received early support from the Volta Circle, the family office of the founders and owners of one of the largest PET producers in the world. — Cleo Levin, Footwear News, 30 Sep. 2026 As Inhotim took shape before its public opening in 2006, even its founders did not know whether people would travel roughly 37 miles southeast from Belo Horizonte to visit. — Mercedes Ezquiaga, ARTnews.com, 30 Sep. 2026 Technology has billionaire founders, but millions build successful careers without creating the next trillion-dollar company. — Dor Isseroff, Forbes.com, 29 Sep. 2026 In the aftermath, co-founders Lela Becker and Tim Kaeding began scouting new locations, ultimately landing on Beverly Hills for their inaugural flagship. — Kelsey Stewart, Vogue, 23 Sep. 2026 It's called Imperia, and its members include CEOs, founders, innovators, entrepreneurs and others. — ABC News, 23 Sep. 2026 The company was started in Florida in 1997, but its founders cashed out more than a decade ago. — Amelia Lucas, CNBC, 16 Sep. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for founders
  1. creators
  2. flops
  3. collapses
  4. authors
  5. fails
  6. goes
  7. fathers
  8. struggles
Noun
  • For creators pitching Amazon, the executives stressed conviction over quantity.
    — Anna Marie de la Fuente, Variety, 30 Sep. 2026
  • But while the creators of AI strive to set guardrails, the building of the infrastructure for the technology continues.
    — Lim Hui Jie, CNBC, 29 Sep. 2026
Definition of creators
Verb
  • In Bait, Ahmed stars as struggling actor Shah Latif, who flops in his audition to play James Bond and then becomes consumed by the quest to become the first Pakistani 007.
    — Chris Murphy, Vanity Fair, 21 Aug. 2026
  • Starter addition flops Last season’s trade deadline wound up being a big flop.
    — Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald, 2 Aug. 2026
Definition of flops
Verb
  • Emmanuel Marre | Belgium | 155 min Cannes Best Screenplay winner A MAN OF HIS TIME stars ANATOMY OF A FALL’s Swann Arlaud as a Vichy civil servant whose faith in government collapses amid collaboration, bureaucracy, and moral surrender.
    — Matthew Carey, Deadline, 29 Sep. 2026
  • Single-pressing the button collapses the view to show only the arrow and distance to the next turn, while double-pressing the button expands the view to show a map with the full route across the bottom half of the display.
    — Will Greenwald, PC Magazine, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of collapses
Noun
  • The authors were explicit that the core barrier was not model quality, infrastructure, talent or regulation.
    — Abhishek Yadav, Forbes.com, 1 Oct. 2026
  • The Stanford authors say their findings are descriptive patterns, not causal estimates, and the gaps shrink when education is accounted for.
    — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of authors
Verb
  • Consider what happens when a large late-stage clinical trial fails.
    — George Achilleos, Forbes.com, 25 Sep. 2026
  • While captive whales often live only into their 30s, Marino said attributing their deaths to age fails to acknowledge the reality of why their lifespans are shorter.
    — Lila Hempel-Edgers, Chicago Tribune, 25 Sep. 2026
Definition of fails
Verb
  • And keep in mind that a little goes a long way with each spritz, so one bottle will last you a while.
    — Ali Faccenda, InStyle, 26 Sep. 2026
  • When one of the contestants goes missing, Detective Fion Morgan has to work out the difference between what’s been shown on screen and the truth.
    — L.M. Chilton, PEOPLE, 26 Sep. 2026
Definition of goes
Noun
  • That was in part to force the fathers to pay child maintenance, thus saving taxpayers’ money, but also supposedly to save the souls of both parents.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 28 Sep. 2026
  • To offset these kinds of social pressures, countries like Japan and Austria offer incentives such as bonus leave time for families when fathers actually take their available leave.
    — Megan Kuykendoll, The Conversation, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of fathers
Verb
  • The nation's flood insurance program struggles to balance affordability, flood protection and cost to taxpayers, leaving millions vulnerable at a time when climate change is driving flood risk higher.
    — MICHAEL PHILLIS, Arkansas Online, 30 Sep. 2026
  • Next up was Christian Pulisic, dubbed Captain America, who is arguably a bit better but struggles with consistency.
    — Ben Church, CNN Money, 29 Sep. 2026
Definition of struggles

Browse Nearby Words

foundering
founders
found fault (with)
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Cite this Entry

“Founders.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/founders. Accessed 2 Oct. 2026.

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