Compound of open +‎ source, coined by Christine Peterson in 1998 for software as an umbrella term to encompass existing concepts such as free software, freedomware, and sourceware.^[1]

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈoʊpən ˌsɔɹs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

open source (uncountable)

1. (software) The practice of providing open-source code for a product.
   • 2025 April 1, Thomas Claburn, “Genetic data repo OpenSNP to self-destruct before authoritarians weaponize it”, in The Register‎^[2]:

     OpenSNP, a fourteen-year-old open source repository for genetic records, will shut down and delete all its data at the end of April.

2. (software) Open-source software in general.

   His contributions to open source are numerous.

3. (espionage) Information that is in the public domain and available to everybody.

• open-source
• open weights
• OSINT (“open-source intelligence”)

• open core

open source (third-person singular simple present open sources, present participle open sourcing, simple past and past participle open sourced)

1. Alternative form of open-source.

• 👁 Image
  open source on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed from English open source.

• IPA^(key): /oːpənˈsɔːrs/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: open source

open source c (plural open sources, no diminutive)

1. open source

• OS

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