Noun

(en noun)

The act of founding, fixing, establishing, or beginning to erect.

That upon which anything is founded; that on which anything stands, and by which it is supported; the lowest and supporting layer of a superstructure; groundwork; basis; underbuilding.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= The attack of the MOOCs , passage=Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations . University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.}}

(card games) In solitaire or patience games, one of the piles of cards that the player attempts to build, usually holding all cards of a suit in ascending order.

(architecture) The lowest and supporting part or member of a wall, including the base course and footing courses; in a frame house, the whole substructure of masonry.

* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 20, author=Nathan Rabin, work=The Onion AV Club

, title= TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Marge Gets A Job” (season 4, episode 7; originally aired 11/05/1992) , passage=“Marge Gets A Job” opens with the foundation of the Simpson house tilting perilously to one side, making the family homestead look like the suburban equivalent of the Leaning Tower Of Pisa. }}

A donation or legacy appropriated to support a charitable institution, and constituting a permanent fund; endowment.

That which is founded, or established by endowment; an endowed institution or charity.

(cosmetics) Cosmetic cream roughly skin-colored, designed to make the face appear uniform in color and texture.

A basis for social bodies or intellectual disciplines.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Boundary problems , passage=Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too.

Noun

(en noun)

(uncountable) The vault of the heavens; the sky.

And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters."

(obsolete) basis.

The field or sphere of an interest or activity.

the international fashion firmament

(archaic) In the geocentric Ptolemaic system, the eighth sphere, which carried the fixed stars.