open source

See also: opensource and open-source

English

Etymology

Compound of open +‎ source, coined by Christine Peterson in 1998 for software as an umbrella term to encompass existing concepts such as free software, freedomware, and sourceware.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈoʊpən ˌsɔɹs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

open source (uncountable)

1. (software) The practice of providing open-source code for a product.
   • 2025 April 1, Thomas Claburn, “Genetic data repo OpenSNP to self-destruct before authoritarians weaponize it”, in The Register‎^[2], archived from the original on 8 March 2026:

     OpenSNP, a fourteen-year-old open source repository for genetic records, will shut down and delete all its data at the end of April.

2. (software) Open-source software in general.

   His contributions to open source are numerous.

3. (espionage) Information that is in the public domain and available to everybody.

Derived terms

• open sourceror

Related terms

• open-source
• open weights
• OSINT (“open-source intelligence”)

Translations

practice

• Catalan: codi obert m, codi font obert m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 開源 / 开源 (zh) (kāiyuán) (Chinese mainland), 開放原始碼 / 开放原始码 (kāifàngyuánshǐmǎ) (Taiwan)

• Dutch: open source (nl)
• Finnish: avoin lähdekoodi (fi)
• French: code source ouvert m
• German: Open Source (de) f
• Greek: ανοικτός κώδικας m (anoiktós kódikas)
• Irish: foinse oscailte f
• Italian: codice aperto m, open source (it) m or f
• Japanese: オープンソース (ja) (ōpun sōsu)
• Portuguese: código aberto m
• Sicilian: còdici raputu m, open source m or f
• Spanish: código abierto m
• Swedish: öppen källkod (sv) c, open source (sv)
• Tamil: திறமூலம் (ta) (tiṟamūlam)
• Thai: โอเพนซอร์ส
• Zhuang: haigoek

software

• Catalan: codi obert m, codi font obert m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 開源軟件 / 开源软件 (kāiyuán ruǎnjiàn) (Chinese mainland), 開放原始碼軟體 / 开放原始码软体 (kāifàngyuánshǐmǎ ruǎntǐ) (Taiwan)

• Finnish: avoin lähdekoodi (fi)
• French: libre (fr) m or f, open source (fr) f, source ouverte (fr) f
• German: Open-Source-Software f
• Greek: ανοικτός κώδικας m (anoiktós kódikas), ανοικτός πηγαίος κώδικας m (anoiktós pigaíos kódikas)
• Italian: codice aperto m, open source (it) m or f
• Japanese: オープンソースソフトウェア (ōpun sōsu sofutowhea)
• Portuguese: código aberto m
• Romanian: software de sursă deschisă, software de open-source
• Sicilian: còdici raputu m, open source m or f
• Spanish: código abierto m
• Thai: โอเพนซอร์ส
• Turkish: açık kaynak yazılım, açık kaynak (tr)
• Vietnamese: phần mềm nguồn mở

See also

• open core

Verb

open source (third-person singular simple present open sources, present participle open sourcing, simple past and past participle open sourced)

1. Alternative form of open-source.

Further reading

• open source on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English open source.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /oːpənˈsɔːrs/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: open source

Noun

open source c (plural open sources, no diminutive)

1. open source

Alternative forms

• OS