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Institution vs Foundation - What's the difference?

institution | foundation |

As nouns the difference between institution and foundation

is that institution is an established organisation, especially one dedicated to education, public service, culture or the care of the destitute, poor etc while foundation is the act of founding, fixing, establishing, or beginning to erect.

institution

English

Noun

(wikipedia institution) (en noun)
  • An established organisation, especially one dedicated to education, public service, culture or the care of the destitute, poor etc.
  • The building which houses such an organisation.
  • A custom or practice of a society or community, marriage for example.
  • (informal) A person long established with a certain place or position.
  • The act of instituting.
  • (obsolete) That which institutes or instructs; a textbook or system of elements or rules.
  • There is another manuscript, of above three hundred years old, being an institution of physic. — Evelyn.

    Derived terms

    * academic institution * educational institution * research institution

    foundation

    English

    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.

    Derived terms

    * foundation stone

    Synonyms

    *(act of founding) establishment *groundwall

    Antonyms

    *(act of founding) abolition, dissolution, ruination