cross reference
noun
a reference from one part of a book, index, or the like, to related material, as a word or illustration, in another part.
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cross reference
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cross-reference
cross-referenceverb (used with or without object)to provide with cross references.
cross reference
1 Americannoun
cross-reference
2
American
[kraws-ref-er-uhns, -ref-ruhns, kros-]
/ ˈkrɔsˈrɛf ər əns, -ˈrɛf rəns, ˈkrɒs- /
verb (used with or without object)
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cross-references,
present (3rd person singular)
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cross-referenced,
past participle, past
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cross-referencing
present participle
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to provide with cross references.
The new encyclopedia is completely cross-referenced.
cross-reference
British
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
cross-referencesimple
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cross-referencessimple
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have cross-referencedperfect
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has cross-referencedperfect
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am cross-referencingprogressive
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are cross-referencingprogressive
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is cross-referencingprogressive
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have been cross-referencingperfect progressive
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has been cross-referencingperfect progressive
Past
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cross-referencedsimple
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had cross-referencedperfect
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was cross-referencingprogressive
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were cross-referencingprogressive
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had been cross-referencingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cross reference1
First recorded in 1825–35
Origin of cross-reference2
First recorded in 1900–05
Explanation
When a book mentions something from a different part of the same book, that's a cross-reference. In a textbook, a cross-reference might look like this: "See page 123." Cross-reference, "a reference in a book to another part of it," was coined in the 19th century. It's a way to add more information without going into wordy detail, similar to using a footnote or endnote in academic writing. If you look up "Amelia Earhart" in an index at the back of a book, you might see cross-references such as "See also: Earhart, Amelia" and "See also: aviators."
Vocabulary lists containing cross-reference
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Boeing 737s have historically had only two angle-of-attack sensors, so if one gets bad data the plane’s flight computers haven’t had a way to cross reference a third reading to ensure accuracy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026
The Mayo Clinic provides some symptoms of BPD, which you can cross reference with your experience of your mother-in-law.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 29, 2026
JXN Water, the corporation Henifin formed to manage water infrastructure projects, will cross reference the Entergy customer records with city records to see what homes might be using water without a utility account.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 22, 2023
We can then cross reference this with satellite and Google Street View imagery.
From BBC ● Apr. 5, 2023
These Cross References are given both on the plate and the subject card as well as on the cross reference card.
From A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging the Books and Pamphlets of a Library by Melvil Dewey
More than a decade ago, a local data nerd was able to obtain taxi commission data and cross-reference it with photos on celebrity gossip blogs to purportedly show that some celebrities didn’t tip their drivers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
The cases don’t cross-reference one another, as often happens when the court decides two similar cases in the same term.
From Slate ● Jul. 1, 2026
She begins to cross-reference family lore with a stunning trove of mail in original packaging, baptismal records from remote towns, court filings and Freedom of Information requests.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
Having the location of each attack, we were able to calculate the time of filming using the shadows and to cross-reference with weather records to find the most likely date.
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2024
I had one more name I needed to cross-reference with Bobbie Lyles.
From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin
The 16-year-old this year built an app that cross-references noise picked up from a microphone nearby his house against an FAA registry and the flight-tracking platform FlightRadar24.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
Happily, the show is not up to its cowl in DC cross-references and crossovers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
Since then, AFP has automated area calculations of the geographic files supplied by ISW and cross-references them with the size of Ukrainian regions.
From Barron's ● Feb. 24, 2026
Starting from the dawn of the modern encyclopedia, you could argue that the whole structure of empirical human knowledge is built out of the rivets and bolts of footnotes and cross-references.
From Slate ● Mar. 1, 2023
You fill out a survey, a computer analyzes your answers, then it cross-references with the other surveys.
From "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher
For the report, the UN agency cross-referenced data showing where the roughly 2.4 billion children on the planet live with the geographic distribution of the eight most common climate impacts.
From Barron's ● Jun. 16, 2026
He cross-referenced books, a catalog from the 1920s, and photos on the British Museum’s website, and became convinced that some of the items he’d seen on eBay were part of the British Museum’s collection.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
Once enough information was gathered, the team cross-referenced all of their intelligence, looking for inconsistencies and flags, and provided their findings to the Navajo County district attorney’s office, Clouse said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 29, 2025
Officials said the casualty figures were based on open-source material, sometimes cross-referenced with classified data.
From BBC ● Dec. 6, 2024
He got a list of every high school and university in each river town, and cross-referenced everyone who had been on a swim team for the past twenty years or had registered for a triathlon.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
Finally, by cross-referencing my room type and date of stay, she identified my holy grail as the Hotel Bellazure Duo Down Soft Feather Pillow, which I promptly ordered online for $95.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2025
I studied the pages like scripture — cross-referencing crust ratios, comparing jam methods, building a menu as though I were prepping for an exam.
From Salon ● Oct. 14, 2025
These powerful applications provide a virtual fire hose of real-time information, including location and address history, cross-referencing usernames, and fingerprinting a user based on writing style.
From Slate ● Feb. 5, 2025
By cross-referencing its maps and the fire footprints with maps of local hiking trails, I determined which routes were in the burn area.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2025
Working together, the CIA and FBI conducted a painstaking search, cross-referencing everyone who had access to the names of the agents executed by the KGB.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
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