Which to use
“founded” is a verb and “foundry” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,997
- “founded” frequency rank
- #19,091
- “foundry” frequency rank
- 22088
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | founded | foundry |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of found | A facility that melts metals in special furnaces and pours the molten metal into molds to make products. Foundries are usually specified according to the type of metal dealt with: iron foundry, brass foundry, etc. |
Where the eye mixes founded and foundry
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: founded vs foundry
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: founded is /ˈfaʊndɪd/ while foundry is /ˈfaʊn.dɹi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22088, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
founded is recorded at frequency rank #2,997, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfaʊndɪd/. foundry is at rank #19,091, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfaʊn.dɹi/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 22088, this pair ranks #419,194 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of founded vs foundry
Shared letters: dfnou. Private to "founded": e. Private to "foundry": ry.
"founded" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "foundry" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "founded" for "foundry" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "founded" or "foundry" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "founded" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foundry" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #419,194 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "founded" and "foundry" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fondly vs foundry". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #419,194 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.