Meaning & use
foundational
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Forming the basic base of something, so that later ideas or skills are built on it.
Grammar: Usually before a noun: foundational skills; it can follow be: reading is foundational.
Patterns
- foundational to something
- a foundational skill
Basic arithmetic is foundational to all later math.
The report called trust foundational to a healthy team.
Students take a foundational course before moving to advanced topics.
adjectivebefore a noun
Relating to the original founding of an organization, nation or movement.
Grammar: Often modifies documents or principles: a foundational text.
Patterns
- a foundational document
The constitution is the country's foundational document.
The club revisited its foundational principles at the anniversary meeting.
Common combinations
- foundational knowledge
- Foundational knowledge helps you learn new topics faster.
- foundational skills
- Reading and writing are foundational skills.
- foundational document
- The charter is the foundational document of the club.
- foundational principle
- Fairness is a foundational principle of the law.
- foundational to
- Trust is foundational to any friendship.
Synonyms and how they differ
- fundamental
- Fundamental is the more common word and also means very important, while foundational stresses that other things are built on top.
- basic
- Basic can mean simple or plain, whereas foundational implies significance for what follows.
- underlying
- Underlying points to a hidden cause beneath the surface rather than a base deliberately built first.
- essential
- Essential means necessary and does not carry the picture of building up from a base.
Opposites
Word family
- foundation noun
- the base on which something is built, or an organization funded for a purpose
- found verb
- to establish an organization
- founder noun
- a person who establishes something
- foundationally adverb
- in a way that forms a base
Commonly confused: foundational or fundamental?
foundational vs fundamental
Fundamental is a close neighbor in meaning, but it can mean merely central or basic, while foundational suggests something is built upon it.
Practice
The teacher said that phonics is ___ to learning to read, because every later skill depends on it.
Choose one answer.
Foundational means other learning is built upon it, which fits the idea of dependence; peripheral, optional and incidental all suggest it is not essential.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “foundational”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.