crowdsource
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of crowdsource
First recorded in 2006; crowd 1 + (out)source
Explanation
When you crowdsource something, you call on the general public for help or ideas. For example, some companies crowdsource recommendations for the name of a new product. Social media is a good place to crowdsource: a request for assistance can attract a large number of volunteers. Social media posts have crowdsourced donations to help after natural disasters. The National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) has crowdsourced the search for potentially dangerous asteroids. Amateur astronomers can volunteer to review NASA photographs of outer space, looking for any large asteroids that might be on a collision course with Earth. That’s a use of crowdsourcing we can all be thankful for.
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:
Dalporto raised eyebrows earlier this year when he posted on Reddit and TikTok to crowdsource ideas for the guitar the company plans to create and sell.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
They also recruited the help of the broader birding community to crowdsource additional observational data about which birds were feeding on cicadas.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 19, 2023
Maui resident Ellie Erickson created a Google spreadsheet to crowdsource efforts to find people.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2023
At the same time, modern algorithms grounded in machine learning do not rely solely on explicit logical rules—they also crowdsource their decision making based on statistical patterns gleaned from large amounts of training data.
From Slate ● May 27, 2023
After a call with Rabbi Pardo and a crowdsource of several of his YU WhatsApp groups, someone told him of a chevra kadisha, a burial society, he could try.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
One of the hottest new smartphone apps in Russia is a crowdsourced tool to help drivers locate gas stations with available fuel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026
In 2012, a French programmer called Stéphane Gigandet launched a free, online and crowdsourced food product database called Open Food Facts during the Food Revolution Day organised by English chef Jamie Oliver.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
When Lego denied Ai, he crowdsourced pieces on social media.
From Salon ● Apr. 26, 2026
Despite its goals, Tesla has yet to launch in additional cities and only has about 160 vehicles actively being used, according to a crowdsourced robotaxi tracker.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 26, 2025
Last week, the board urged Meta not to replace professional fact-checking with Community Notes, a crowdsourced model for debunking falsehoods popularized by billionaire Elon Musk's platform X.
From Barron's
Here’s what I learned after speaking with pet experts and crowdsourcing info from my pet-owning friends.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
Portuguese-speaking Brazil, the region's largest market for Meta's platforms, was excluded from the crowdsourcing trial.
From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026
DeFlock, an anti-surveillance watchdog that has mapped the locations of Flock cameras using verified crowdsourcing, has identified about 13,000 in the state.
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026
Proponents of prediction markets say the platforms generate useful information through crowdsourcing.
From Slate ● Jun. 30, 2026
The crowdsourcing venture aims to find victims of the Eaton and Palisades blazes who had lost Disney mementos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2025
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
