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.
Jump To:
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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
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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
Choosing and Evaluating Sources
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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:
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 people have different agendas and different biases, and you cross reference those lies.
From Salon ● Feb. 29, 2020
There's too much cross reference to all periods involved.
From Cubs of the Wolf by Raymond F. Jones
The most recent awards call for contractors to help the agency geolocate individuals labeled as “extremists,” compile reports on individuals and cross-reference information with government databases, contracting documents show.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 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
With details of the batch, Roo's team were able to cross-reference with the bottle he was still taking drops from every day.
From BBC ● Apr. 16, 2026
“It is not for me to cross-reference names.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2026
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
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
He then cross-references that information with satellite imagery.
From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2023
Like Faith Ringgold, who began fusions of quilting and painting in the 1980s, Biggers cross-references the two.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2021
I searched endlessly through all the cross-references and all the parallel passages in the Palestinian Talmud.
From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok
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
The campaigners cross-referenced United Utilities datasets showing when an asset was spilling against how much sewage it was treating at the time.
From BBC ● Mar. 31, 2025
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
This involves cross-referencing the numbers from different sections of OBDC’s quarterly report.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
In interviews the report authors say this led them to be extra careful when it came to cross-referencing and fact-checking evidence they included.
From BBC ● May 12, 2026
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
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
