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
In a sign of its popularity, the AI agent project has gained more stars on the GitHub coding platform than Linux, a transformative open-source operating system that underpins modern computing.
—Evelyn Cheng,dylan Butts, CNBC, 12 Mar. 2026
Meta designed the chips with help from Broadcom and built them on the open-source RISC-V architecture.
—Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 11 Mar. 2026
Microsoft also faces competition for AI agents from open-source offerings like OpenClaw.
—Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 9 Mar. 2026
On New Year’s Day, programmer Steve Yegge launched Gas Town, an open-source platform that lets users orchestrate swarms of Claude Code agents simultaneously, assembling software at blistering speed.
—Harvard Business Review, 5 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for open-source
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Evelyn Cheng,dylan Butts, CNBC, 12 Mar. 2026
Meta designed the chips with help from Broadcom and built them on the open-source RISC-V architecture.
—Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 11 Mar. 2026
Microsoft also faces competition for AI agents from open-source offerings like OpenClaw.
—Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 9 Mar. 2026
On New Year’s Day, programmer Steve Yegge launched Gas Town, an open-source platform that lets users orchestrate swarms of Claude Code agents simultaneously, assembling software at blistering speed.
—Harvard Business Review, 5 Mar. 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 16 Mar. 2026.
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