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There’s nothing fishy about flounder... the verb, that is. While the noun referring to a common food fish is of Scandinavian origin, the verb flounder, which dates to the late 16th century, is likely an alteration of an older verb, founder. The two verbs have been confused ever since. Today, founder is most often used as a synonym of fail, or, in contexts involving a waterborne vessel, as a word meaning “to fill with water and sink.” Formerly, it was also frequently applied when a horse stumbled badly and was unable to keep walking. It’s likely this sense of founder led to the original and now-obsolete meaning of flounder: “to stumble.” In modern use, flounder typically means “to struggle” or “to act clumsily”; the word lacks the finality of founder, which usually suggests complete collapse or failure, as that of a sinking ship.
Synonyms
Examples of flounder in a Sentence
Jenny Hartley, Charlotte Observer, 11 Feb. 2025
Anglers head there to cast for redfish, trout, black drum and flounder in its super salty waters.
—Pam Leblanc, Southern Living, 26 Jan. 2025
Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 13 Dec. 2024
Hire too early, and the journalist may flounder without the necessary infrastructure to support their work.
—Rhea Wessel, Forbes, 8 Dec. 2024
See all Example Sentences for flounder 
Dictionary Entries Near flounder
Cite this Entry
“Flounder.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flounder. Accessed 21 Feb. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
flounder
1 of 2 noun
flounder
2 of 2 verb
Noun
Middle English flounder "a flatfish"; of Scandinavian origin
Verb
probably an altered form of founder
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