open-source
adjective
1
a
of software
: having the source code freely available for possible modification and redistribution
an open-source operating system
b
: of, relating to, or promoting open-source software
the open-source movement/community
Instead, they opted for the open-source model, in which computer code is openly shared, allowing programmers to modify, improve and fix the software.—
Steve Lohr
Steve Lohr2
a
: publicly available for use by the community at large
open-source images
The team uses open-source materials such as obituaries in local newspapers and cemetery visits for its count.—Brendan Hoffman
Brendan Hoffman
b
: relating to or utilizing information that is publicly available
an open-source analysis
Since the advent of the internet, social media and smartphones, open-source intelligence has undergone a revolution as people willingly and publicly post vast amounts of information online. Actors outside of the traditional intelligence community have begun to take notice.—Nick Waters
Nick WatersExamples of open-source in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
What began as a 2019 4chan thread about eerie-looking rooms with jaundiced lighting and endless halls turned into an open-source creepypasta, with countless creators coming up with their own take on the material.
—Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 1 June 2026
The new open-source index draws from publicly available data such as earnings call transcripts, job openings and patent applications to measure how much executives know and say about AI, as well as how much their companies are prioritizing the technology and bringing it into daily operations.
—Cj Haddad, CNBC, 1 June 2026
Data sharing concerns More than 95,000 Flock cameras are being used for law enforcement across the country, according to the open-source watchdog DeFlock.
—Noah Daly
updated June 1, Idaho Statesman, 1 June 2026
Frontier models have already validated hundreds of high-severity zero-days in production open-source code, including a Linux kernel bug that had been sitting unnoticed since 2003.
—Yonesy Nunez, Forbes.com, 1 June 2026
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Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 1 June 2026
The new open-source index draws from publicly available data such as earnings call transcripts, job openings and patent applications to measure how much executives know and say about AI, as well as how much their companies are prioritizing the technology and bringing it into daily operations.
—Cj Haddad, CNBC, 1 June 2026
Data sharing concerns More than 95,000 Flock cameras are being used for law enforcement across the country, according to the open-source watchdog DeFlock.
—Noah Daly
updated June 1, Idaho Statesman, 1 June 2026
Frontier models have already validated hundreds of high-severity zero-days in production open-source code, including a Linux kernel bug that had been sitting unnoticed since 2003.
—Yonesy Nunez, Forbes.com, 1 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for open-source
Cite this Entry
“Open-source.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/open-source. Accessed 4 Jun. 2026.
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