Meaning & use
foundry
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Meanings
nouncountabletechnical
A workshop or factory where metal or glass is melted and poured into molds to make objects.
Grammar: Plural is foundries: iron foundries.
Patterns
- work at a foundry
- a foundry for something
The town's iron foundry made bells for the churches.
Sparks flew as workers poured metal at the foundry.
The sculptor sent her statue to a bronze foundry.
nouncountablecomputingtechnical
A company that makes silicon chips or other products for other firms to design, especially in the electronics industry.
Grammar: Used in technology, as in a chip foundry.
Patterns
- a chip foundry
The company hired a foundry in Asia to build its processors.
Chip foundries invest billions in new factories.
Few foundries can make such advanced circuits.
nouncountablespecialist
A company that designs and sells typefaces, or the old workshop where metal type for printing was cast.
Grammar: Usually appears as type foundry.
Patterns
- a type foundry
She works for a type foundry that sells fonts.
The old type foundry cast letters in lead for printers.
The independent foundry released a new serif typeface.
Word forms
| plural | foundries |
|---|
Common combinations
- iron foundry
- The iron foundry supplied pipes to the whole city.
- bronze foundry
- The statue was cast in a bronze foundry.
- foundry worker
- A foundry worker wears protective gear against heat.
- type foundry
- The type foundry released a new font family.
- semiconductor foundry
- The semiconductor foundry produces chips for many brands.
- run a foundry
- He ran a small foundry outside the village.
Synonyms and how they differ
- smelter
- A smelter extracts metal from ore by melting it, while a foundry shapes already-refined metal into objects.
- ironworks
- Ironworks is a place where iron is made or worked, and it is narrower than foundry.
- forge
- A forge heats and hammers metal into shape, whereas a foundry pours molten metal into molds.
- metalworks
- Metalworks is a general term for a place that makes metal goods by any method.
Word family
- found verb
- to melt and pour metal into a mold
- foundries noun
- the plural form
- foundryman noun
- a worker in a foundry
Commonly confused: foundry or foundary? foundry or fountain?
foundry vs foundary
Foundary is a misspelling of foundry; there is no a before the y.
foundry vs fountain
A fountain is a jet of water and looks a little similar in spelling, but has nothing to do with metal.
Practice
Where would you most likely see molten metal being poured into molds?
Choose one answer.
A foundry casts metal into shapes using molds. A bakery, a library and a greenhouse have nothing to do with melting metal.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “foundry”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.