Co-founder or cofounder?
co-founder is a noun meaning “Alternative form of cofounder”; cofounder is a noun meaning “A joint founder; one of several people involved with the creation of a…”. co-founder is written with a hyphen and cofounder as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between co-founder and cofounder?
| co-founder | cofounder | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | Alternative form of cofounder | A joint founder; one of several people involved with the creation of a business, organization, union, or entity |
| Example | none recorded | The two cofounders both attended the ceremony |
| Forms | co-founders | cofounders |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /kəʊˈfaʊndə/ /ˈkoʊ(ˌ)faʊndɚ/ /ˌkoʊˈfaʊndɚ/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | about once in every 3 million words |
Sources: co-founder and cofounder in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of co-founder and cofounder
co-founder
- 1
Alternative form of cofounder
cofounder
- 1
A joint founder; one of several people involved with the creation of a business, organization, union, or entity
The two cofounders both attended the ceremony
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, co-founder or cofounder?
co-founder is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; cofounder about once in every 3 million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).