Find - found - founded

The form found is ambiguous.

Most commonly, it is the (irregular) -ed form (past tense and past participle) of the verb 'to find'. 'I have found the reference I was looking for'; 'Found: a blue scarf'.

But 'to found' is also a verb in its own right, or rather two verbs in current English (OED records five altogether, of which three are obsolete). The -ed from of both these verbs is founded.

• The more usual has the meaning 'to lay the foundations of'. Literally, it means to prepare the ground on which to erect a building; 'to make the trenches and other underground work on which the walls will rest'. 'We founded our new extension on a solid raft of concrete', for example. Figuratively, it can be to start a new institution, not necessarily the buildings: 'Hull University was founded as a College of the University of London'; or 'to have a base for' [ideas or similar]: 'Aristotle founded his ideas on those of Plato'.
• The less usual is concerned with pouring materials melted at a high temperature, usually metal or glass. It is basically the same as 'to cast' metal, or glass. A place where such work is done is called a foundry.

Both these verbs label actions, with those who perform the actions being called founders.