open-source

adjective

ˈō-pən-ˈsȯrs 

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

2

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

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

Examples of open-source in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

For weeks, there have been murmurs in DC about a coming White House move to address the inevitability of powerful, open-source Chinese AI models being used by people and businesses across the globe. — Reed Albergotti, semafor.com, 15 July 2026

As well as being a picture of the open-source ecosystem in 2026, the report is at least partially a piece of advocacy for Mozilla’s anti-concentration-of-power agenda, too, according to Raffi Krikorian, Mozilla’s chief technology officer. — Billy Perrigo, Time, 14 July 2026

In 2021, a critical bug in open-source software left hundreds of millions of devices around the world vulnerable to hacking and triggered a frantic response from Biden administration officials. — Hadas Gold, CNN Money, 14 July 2026

Hassibi said Google's open-source Gemma model is next in the pipeline, followed by much larger models, including those from frontier labs that today generally require datacenter hardware. — Mackenzie Sigalos, CNBC, 14 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1956, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Rhymes for open-source

• counterforce
• intercourse
• nonrecourse
• reinforce
• watercourse
• bourse
• coarse
• course
• force
• gorse
• hoarse
• horse