source

n. the place, person, or thing that something comes from.

n. the point of origin or provenance from which something is obtained or initiated.

“The sun is our primary source of light and heat.”

“The investigation aimed to identify the primary source of the contamination that had affected the local water supply for several months.”

n. a book, person, or document that provides information.

n. a document, person, or publication that provides information or evidence for research or news reporting.

“You must list every source you used at the end of your essay.”

“The journalist refused to name her source, citing a professional obligation to protect the whistleblower's identity from public exposure.”

Academic

n. the place where a river or stream begins.

n. the fountainhead or spring from which a stream or river originates.

“The explorers spent weeks searching for the source of the Nile.”

“High in the mountains, the source of the river is nothing more than a small, bubbling spring hidden beneath the rocks.”

n. the original instructions written by a programmer.

n. the human-readable instructions written by a programmer before being compiled into machine code.

“The developer shared the source on a public website for others to use.”

“The company decided to release the software's source under an open-license agreement to encourage community-driven improvements and security audits.”

Technical

n. one of the three parts of a special type of transistor.

n. the terminal of a field-effect transistor (FET) through which the majority carriers enter the channel.

“The technician checked the voltage at the source of the transistor.”

“In a typical n-channel MOSFET configuration, the source is often connected to the circuit ground to provide a reference potential.”

Technical

v. to find out where to get something and buy it from there.

v. to find or acquire something from a particular supplier or origin, especially in a business context.

“The restaurant tries to source all its vegetables from local farms.”

“The manufacturer struggled to source high-grade lithium due to recent disruptions in the global supply chain.”

v. to show where information or a quote came from.

v. to provide or find a citation for a piece of information or a quotation.

“The article was well-written but it was not properly sourced.”

“Academic integrity requires that every claim in the dissertation be meticulously sourced to avoid any suspicion of plagiarism.”

Academic · Formal