source
Pluralsources
Verbsources, sourcing, sourced
Pluralsources
Formssources, sourcing, sourced
- 1The person, place, or thing from which something such as information or goods comes or is obtained.
Investigators traced the contamination back to a single source.
The museum verifies the source of every artifact it acquires.
UsageUsually a source of something: a source of energy, of income. News comes from a reliable source.
Similarorigin, provenance, root
- 2An informant who supplies a reporter with information for a news story.
The story relied on a single anonymous source.
Editors pressed her to reveal her source, but she refused.
UsageCommon in news phrases like according to sources and a source close to the minister.
- 3The human-readable program code that a developer writes before it is compiled or run.
She published the source on a public repository.
Reviewing the source revealed a serious security flaw.
UsageShort for source code: read the source, compile from source.
Similarcode
Note
Programmers' shorthand for source code. It covers program text written in a high-level or assembly language. A compiler or assembler translates this form; an interpreter executes its instructions, sometimes after translating them into an intermediate form.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Source code includes program text in high-level and assembly languages. fda.gov
- 4To obtain or procure something, especially a resource that a business needs.
Manufacturers struggled to source semiconductors during the shortage.
The company sources its coffee beans directly from farmers in Colombia.
UsageUsually source something from a supplier or place. It stresses where the supply comes from more than plain obtain does.
- 5The spring, fountainhead, or body of water on or under the ground where a stream originates.
Explorers spent years searching for the source of the Nile.
The stream's source lies in an underground aquifer.
UsageUsually the source of a river; a river rises at its source.
Similarspring, fountainhead, headwater, wellspring, headspring
Oppositemouth
Note
Geography keeps the image the word started from: a river's source is where it rises. Large rivers can have more than one, so the plural comes naturally. The main sources of the Euphrates are themselves rivers, the Karasu and the Murat. The phrase near their sources describes a river's upper reaches.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The word's etymology includes the image of a rising spring. en.wiktionary.org
- A river's source is where it begins. en.wikipedia.org
- A river can have multiple sources. en.wikipedia.org
- The Euphrates has two main source rivers, the Karasu and the Murat. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 6To find and identify the origin of a quotation, claim, or piece of information, providing a citation for it.
Researchers must source each claim before publication.
She painstakingly sourced every figure in the dissertation.
UsageRelated adjectives include well-sourced, as in a well-sourced article, and unsourced, as in unsourced claims.
- 7One of the three terminals of a field-effect transistor, the point at which charge carriers enter the device's channel.
- 8In mathematics, the set a function maps from, its domain, or the object at which a morphism begins.
- 9In a directed graph, a node whose edges all point outward: one with no incoming edges.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English sours, borrowed from Old French sorse ("rise, beginning, spring, source"), which came from the verb sordre/sourdre, from Latin surgō ("to rise"). This was made from sub- ("up from below") plus regō ("lead, rule"), ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to straighten." It is a doublet of surge.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Source comes from Middle English sours, borrowed from Old French sorse, meaning rise, beginning, spring or source. en.wiktionary.org
- The Old French word derives from sordre/sourdre, ultimately from Latin surgō, meaning to rise. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin surgō was formed from sub-, meaning up from below, and regō, meaning lead or rule. en.wiktionary.org
- The ultimate Proto-Indo-European root means to straighten. en.wiktionary.org
- Source and surge are doublets. en.wiktionary.org