crowdsourcing

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noun

The delegation of a task to a large diffuse group in order to introduce new or more developed skill sets and improve efficiency. There is usually no substantial monetary compensation involved.

Scrabble 22

Meanings

nouncrowdsourcing (countable and uncountable, plural crowdsourcings)

plural crowdsourcings

  1. countableuncountableThe delegation of a task to a large diffuse group in order to introduce new or more developed skill sets and improve efficiency. There is usually no substantial monetary compensation involved.

    Costs can be reduced by crowdsourcing more content.

    2007 July, Twisted, comp.lang.java.programmer (Usenet)
    2 more examples

    P&G is one of InnoCentive’s earliest and best customers, but the company works with other crowdsourcing networks as well.

    2006 June, Jeff Howe, “The Rise of Crowdsourcing”, in Wired, archived from the original on 21 Jul 2006

    While not a new phenomenon, crowdsourcing is really growing as a business trend.

    2007 January, Jessi Hempel, “Tapping the Wisdom of the Crowd”, in Business Week

    Synonyms: open outsourcing

verb
  1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of crowdsource

Synonyms & antonyms

nounThe delegation of a task to a large diffuse group in order to introduce new or more developed skill sets and improve efficiency. There is usually no substantial monetary compensation involved.

Origin

Coined by American journalist Jeff Howe in 2006, see quotations. From crowd + sourcing, by analogy with outsourcing.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 眾包 /众包
  • 眾包 /众包 (zhòngbāo)delegation of a task
Finnish joukkoistus, joukkoistaminen
  • joukkoistusdelegation of a task
  • joukkoistaminendelegation of a task
  • joukkouttaminendelegation of a task
  • talkoistaminendelegation of a task
French production participative, externalisation ouverte
  • production participativedelegation of a task
  • externalisation ouvertedelegation of a task
Indonesian urun daya
  • urun dayadelegation of a task
Malay sumber khalayak
  • sumber khalayakdelegation of a task
Norwegian crowdsourcing
  • crowdsourcingdelegation of a task
Persian جمعسپاری
  • جمعسپاری (jam'-sepâri)delegation of a task
Russian краудсо́рсинг
  • краудсо́рсинг (kraudsórsing)delegation of a task
Spanish crowdsourcing
  • crowdsourcingdelegation of a task
Welsh torfoli
  • torfolidelegation of a task
Cite this entry
APA

crowdsourcing. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/crowdsourcing

MLA

“crowdsourcing.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/crowdsourcing. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “crowdsourcing,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/crowdsourcing.

Source: crowdsourcing on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.