Meaning & use
Benjamin Franklin
Last updated
Meaning
proper nounproper
An eighteenth-century American printer, scientist, writer and diplomat who helped found the United States.
Grammar: Always capitalized, and referred to by full name or just Franklin.
Patterns
- Benjamin Franklin invented something
Benjamin Franklin helped write the Declaration of Independence.
Students learn that Benjamin Franklin studied electricity with a kite.
Benjamin Franklin appears on the hundred-dollar bill.
Common combinations
- Benjamin Franklin's kite
- Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment is famous in science lessons.
- Benjamin Franklin's almanac
- Benjamin Franklin's almanac was full of sayings.
- founding father Benjamin Franklin
- Founding father Benjamin Franklin served as a diplomat in France.
- Benjamin Franklin bill
- A Benjamin Franklin bill means a hundred-dollar bill.
- portrait of Benjamin Franklin
- A portrait of Benjamin Franklin hung in the library.
Word family
Commonly confused: Benjamin Franklin or Franklin D. Roosevelt?
Benjamin Franklin vs Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt was a president in the twentieth century and is a different person from Benjamin Franklin.
Practice
Which man is on the American hundred-dollar bill?
Choose one answer.
Benjamin Franklin appears on the hundred-dollar bill. Washington is on the one-dollar bill and Lincoln on the five.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “Benjamin Franklin”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.