founder

[…]

/[…]/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“founder” is uncommon German (frequency #97,001 among 3,474 “F” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#97,001
frequency rank, German
3,474
“F” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - scheitern

Corpus desk

Index DE-founder · founder · German

founder · rank #97,001 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #97,001
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,474
  • PHOTO-FINISH fortschreitet

Nearest frequency peer: fortschreitet (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Langschwanz-Ränge nahe „founder“

Dünnes Band: Balken invertieren den Rang, seltenere Formen wirken kürzer

corpus weight

What this shows Langschwanz-Sicht: wo „founder“ gegen ähnlich seltene deutsche Ränge sitzt.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for founder
PropertyValue
Headwordfounder
LanguageGerman
Part of speechVerb
IPA[…]
Letters7
Frequency rank#97,001
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „founder“ im Deutschen

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.founderfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Skala ist logarithmisch (jeder Tick ≈ 10× seltener). Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „fortschreitet“ (#97,000), „fortbesteht“ (#96,999), „Frankenreich“ (#97,003). Unter 3,474 „F“-Lemmata liegt „founder“ bei #97,001. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

founder is uncommon German at frequency #97,001 among 3,474 “F” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed […]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "scheitern".

founder doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable German rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct German form is founder, spelled F-O-U-N-D-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    scheitern

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how founder appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. After 1918, due to a charged athmosphere of economic uncertainty and historic political antipathies, the hopes invested in the League of Nations quickly foundered.

This word in other languages

fail(English)fracasar(Español)échouer(Français)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "founder"?
"founder" is spelled F-O-U-N-D-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is […].
What does "founder" mean?
As a verb, "founder" means: scheitern
How do you pronounce "founder"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "founder" is […]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "founder" come from?
"founder" is a German word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "founder", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Fjorden#96,984Gambier#97,025famille#96,961Genpool#97,044

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list