fund
Americannoun
-
funds
plural
-
a supply of money or pecuniary resources, as for some purpose.
a fund for his education;
a retirement fund.
-
supply; stock.
a fund of knowledge;
a fund of jewels.
-
funds, money immediately available; pecuniary resources.
to be momentarily without funds.
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an organization created to administer or manage a fund, as of money invested or contributed for some special purpose.
verb (used with object)
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funds,
present (3rd person singular)
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funded,
past participle, past
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funding
present participle
-
to provide a fund to pay the interest or principal of (a debt).
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to convert (general outstanding debts) into a more or less permanent debt, represented by interest-bearing bonds.
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to allocate or provide funds for (a program, project, etc.).
noun
-
a reserve of money, etc, set aside for a certain purpose
-
a supply or store of something; stock
it exhausted his fund of wisdom
verb
-
to furnish money to in the form of a fund
-
to place or store up in a fund
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to convert (short-term floating debt) into long-term debt bearing fixed interest and represented by bonds
-
to provide a fund for the redemption of principal or payment of interest of
-
to accumulate a fund for the discharge of (a recurrent liability)
to fund a pension plan
-
to invest (money) in government securities See also funds
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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fundernoun
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overfundnoun
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underfundingnoun
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overfundverb (used with object)
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prefundverb (used with object)
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underfundverb (used with object)
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nonfundedadjective
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underfundedadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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fundsimple
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fundssimple
-
have fundedperfect
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has fundedperfect
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am fundingprogressive
-
are fundingprogressive
-
is fundingprogressive
-
have been fundingperfect progressive
-
has been fundingperfect progressive
Past
-
fundedsimple
-
had fundedperfect
-
was fundingprogressive
-
were fundingprogressive
-
had been fundingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fund
First recorded in 1670–80; from Latin fundus “bottom, estate”; replacing fond 2 in most of its senses
Explanation
A fund is a supply of money to be used for a specific purpose. You can start a fund for almost anything, such as your child’s education, a new car, or the establishment of the world’s largest origami collection. Fund can be used as a verb meaning “provide funds for something.” If you’re unable to save up the money to start your origami collection, you might ask a friend to fund it. (We predict she’ll say no.) An organization that raises money for a particular, often charitable, purpose can also be called a fund. We doubt an origami collection warrants its own fund, but there's no harm in trying.
Vocabulary lists containing fund
"The Sporting Spirit"
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Word Generation Weekly - Series 1
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"Principles of Business," Vocabulary from Chapter 19
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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.
See Examples For:
Baeli says, like most people, she could not fund everything at once and decided to carry out the work in stages over ten years to spread the cost.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Niederhoffer never again managed a hedge fund, but he continued trading, remained curious and kept looking for patterns and looking for connections.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
This plan would hopefully allow the girls to fund their children’s futures in much the same way I am hoping to help them.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
McGraw later launched Envoy Media, prompting accusations the bankruptcy was filed in bad faith specifically to escape creditors and fund his new venture, which he denied.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
The problem, from the point of view of a lawyer closing an investment fund, was that these strange contracts did not expire until 2035.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
It was not immediately clear what the settlement funds will be used for.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
That’s according to Goldman Sachs’ hedge fund trend monitor that published Thursday and encompasses almost 1,000 funds with $5.4 trillion of gross equity positioning.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
Gold is also benefiting from continued central bank purchases and inflows into exchange-traded funds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Albie-Junior and his dad also aimed to raise funds for their local football club, Holywell Town FC, so far collecting £3,085.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
In addition to starting the clinic, Farmer’s organization had also raised funds to build schools, houses, and communal sanitation and water systems.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
The Sussexes will fly back to the UK without a deal for taxpayer funded security, the i Paper reports.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
There is a disclaimer before each episode stating that their cross-country excursion is funded by a nonprofit and no taxpayer dollars were used to pay for the series.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Both of these contracts have yet to be fully funded.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Consider these items in the law that funded the Department of Defense this year:
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
In Gideon, the Supreme Court left it to state and local governments to decide how legal services should be funded.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Merck agreed to pay Moderna $200 million in 2016, which went to funding research to see how the mRNA cancer vaccine would work in combination with Keytruda.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
Shein first floated plans to go public in 2022, when it achieved its peak valuation of $100 billion in a private funding round.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
They argued that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government "assumed massive rises in council tax" in their areas to compensate for cuts to central government funding when publishing its Local Government Finance Settlement.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Despite threats of a billionaire exodus and consistent complaints about the difficulty of doing business in California, it attracted three times more venture funding this year than every other state combined.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
“We’ve already secured the funding for this mission. Res is built. Res is tested. Res is ready to go.”
From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.