Jump To:

• cross reference
  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.
• cross-reference
  cross-reference

  verb (used with or without object)

  to provide with cross references.

cross reference

¹ American  

noun

1. a reference from one part of a book, index, or the like, to related material, as a word or illustration, in another part.

---

cross-reference ² American  

[kraws-ref-er-uhns, -ref-ruhns, kros-] / ˈkrɔsˈrɛf ər əns, -ˈrɛf rəns, ˈkrɒs- /

verb (used with or without object)

• cross-references,
  present (3rd person singular)
• cross-referenced,
  past participle,  past
• cross-referencing
  present participle

1. to provide with cross references.

   The new encyclopedia is completely cross-referenced.

2. cross-refer.

---

cross-reference British  

noun

1. a reference within a text to another part of the text

---

verb

1. to cross-refer

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• cross-referencing
  present
• cross-referenced
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• cross-reference
  simple
• cross-references
  simple
• have cross-referenced
  perfect
• has cross-referenced
  perfect
• am cross-referencing
  progressive
• are cross-referencing
  progressive
• is cross-referencing
  progressive
• have been cross-referencing
  perfect progressive
• has been cross-referencing
  perfect progressive

Past

• cross-referenced
  simple
• had cross-referenced
  perfect
• was cross-referencing
  progressive
• were cross-referencing
  progressive
• had been cross-referencing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will cross-reference
  simple
• will have cross-referenced
  perfect
• will be cross-referencing
  progressive
• will have been cross-referencing
  perfect progressive

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cross reference cross-reference cross-references cross-referenced cross-referencing

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

These people have different agendas and different biases, and you cross reference those lies.

From Salon ● Feb. 29, 2020

Lenahan said while the car is “indescribable,” once investigators have the vehicle identification number, they will be able to cross reference any missing persons reports or other incidents related to the vehicle.

From Washington Times ● Jan. 17, 2020

I have considered it preferable to quote as a unit all that is said on the subject by each author, giving cross reference, when necessary, in discussing particular topics under other headings.

From Prehistoric Textile Art of Eastern United States Thirteenth Annual Report of the Beaurau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1891-1892, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896 pages 3-46 by William Henry Holmes

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

You should also cross-reference the posted information with what local and state government officials, first responders, disaster relief agencies, known nonprofit organizations and trusted media outlets are saying on their official websites.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2025

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

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

The California Department of Justice monitors individuals who legally purchase firearms under the Armed and Prohibited Persons System, a statewide database that cross-references purchases against other records.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2023

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

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

You never cross-referenced her number on the school’s parent list with the one on the text.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2025

Researchers in Australia re-examined the data from thousands of these cores and cross-referenced them with historical sea temperature records from the UK’s Hadley Centre.

From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2024

It appeared as a jumble of cascading windows floating in front of me, displaying text, maps, photos, and audio and video files, all indexed, cross-referenced, and pulsing with life.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

This involves cross-referencing the numbers from different sections of OBDC’s quarterly report.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 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

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

Winston debated with himself whether to award Comrade Ogilvy the Order of Conspicuous Merit; and in the end he decided against it because of the unnecessary cross-referencing that it would entail.

From "1984" by George Orwell