sources

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of source.

   Historians rely on primary sources to reconstruct past events.

   Several anonymous sources confirmed the details of the deal.

   Note

   A regular -s plural that carries every meaning of the singular: the springs where streams begin, a reporter's informants, the source terminals of several field-effect transistors, the nodes in a directed graph that no edge enters. The same spelling also serves as the verb form (she sources her beans locally), so the sentence's grammar, not the word itself, tells you which one you are reading.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of source.

   The company sources its coffee beans directly from Ethiopian growers.

   She sources antique furniture for high-end interior designers.

   Note

   This form agrees with a singular subject such as he, she, it or a company, and the verb behind it has two jobs. In business it means procuring supplies, usually with from naming the origin. Among editors it means tracking down the citation behind a quotation. Both meanings need a direct object. The spelling is shared with the plural noun, and only context separates them.

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