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• open-source
  open-source

  adjective

  pertaining to or denoting software whose source code is available free of charge to the public to use, copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute.
• open source
  open source

  noun

open-source

American  

[oh-puhn-sawrs, -sohrs] / ˈoʊ pənˈsɔrs, -ˈsoʊrs /

adjective

1. Computers. pertaining to or denoting software whose source code is available free of charge to the public to use, copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute.

2. pertaining to or denoting a product or system whose origins, formula, design, etc., are freely accessible to the public.

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open source British  

noun

1. 1. intellectual property, esp computer source code, that is made freely available to the general public by its creators

   2. ( as modifier ) Compare closed source

      open source software

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open-source Scientific  

1. Relating to source code that is available to the public without charge. Open-source code is often enhanced, improved, and adapted for specific purposes by interested programmers, with the revised versions of the code are made available to the public. For example, most of the code in the Linux operating system is open-source.

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Etymology

Origin of open-source

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

Nvidia and the startup Reflection will both have their open-source AI models, Nemotron and Reflection 70B, respectively, in use by the government.

From BBC • May 1, 2026

Created last year by Canadian software developer Ali Waseem to curb his own bad phone habits, the open-source iOS app offers all the benefits Kirshner described at absolutely no cost to the user.

From Slate • Apr. 26, 2026

Alibaba, the e-commerce behemoth behind shopping platforms like Taobao, is known for its open-source "Qwen" AI models -- popular with programmers worldwide because they can be freely customised.

From Barron's • Apr. 24, 2026

However, it was later reported to have been based on a Chinese company’s open-source model.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 21, 2026

At the moment, he had NT 5, NT 4, Work Station, Windows 98, and he and Eric had begun fooling around with Linux, the complex, open-source software system rapidly spreading across the world.

From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz