private foundation
n · noun
Simple meaning
A private foundation is a tax-exempt organization that does not rely on broad public support and generally claims to serve humanitarian purposes.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pryvuhtfowndayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɹaɪvətfaʊnˈdeɪʃən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
n
A private foundation is a tax-exempt organization that does not rely on broad public support and generally claims to serve humanitarian purposes.
Until 1969, the term private foundation was not defined in the United States Internal Revenue Code.
noun
A charity that does not receive a major part of its support from the public
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A private foundation is a tax-exempt organization that does not rely on broad public support and generally claims to serve humanitarian purposes.
Used this way, private foundation is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in finance or economics contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Finance/economics
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.