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
An in-depth report on how Tanzanian police crushed election protests with lethal force by BBC Verify, a specialist team of journalists using methods such as open-source intelligence, satellite imagery, and data analysis.
—Yinka Adegoke, semafor.com, 15 Dec. 2025
Designs with additional tiers show up to a twelve-fold improvement on real AI workloads, including those derived from Meta’s open-source LLaMA model, as per the release.
—Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 14 Dec. 2025
And the country should deepen its collaboration among government, industry, and research institutions to reclaim open-source leadership.
—Eric Schmidt, Time, 11 Dec. 2025
The company’s obsession with its open-source large language model has given way to a very different approach to AI, one focused around a multibillion-dollar hiring spree to bring in top industry talent that could help Meta take on the likes of OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.
—Jonathan Vanian, CNBC, 9 Dec. 2025
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Yinka Adegoke, semafor.com, 15 Dec. 2025
Designs with additional tiers show up to a twelve-fold improvement on real AI workloads, including those derived from Meta’s open-source LLaMA model, as per the release.
—Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 14 Dec. 2025
And the country should deepen its collaboration among government, industry, and research institutions to reclaim open-source leadership.
—Eric Schmidt, Time, 11 Dec. 2025
The company’s obsession with its open-source large language model has given way to a very different approach to AI, one focused around a multibillion-dollar hiring spree to bring in top industry talent that could help Meta take on the likes of OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.
—Jonathan Vanian, CNBC, 9 Dec. 2025
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 16 Dec. 2025.
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