founding father

British

noun

(often capitals) a person who founds or establishes an important institution, esp a member of the US Constitutional Convention (1787)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Rubio became the highest-ranking US official ever to visit the tiny country, the birthplace of one of the United States' founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton.

From Barron's

Ghana's government has removed the name of a coup leader, who helped overthrow founding father Kwame Nkrumah exactly 60 years ago, from the country's main airport.

From BBC

Dawn newspaper - the oldest in Pakistan, founded in 1941 by the country's founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah - has taken a financial hit for its reporting.

From BBC

Biographer Ron Chernow calls Washington’s decision to free his slaves “glorious. . . . He did what no other founding father dared to do.”

From The Wall Street Journal

For so long the giants of Welsh politics, Labour confront social changes and a fragmented electorate in the political home of its founding father, Keir Hardie.

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023