source

plural sources

1. The person, place, or thing from which something (information, goods, etc.) comes or is acquired.

   The accused refused to reveal the source of the illegal drugs she was selling.

   3 more examples

   To this day I do not know the source of the terrible screams that night in the labyrinth. Perhaps an owl. Perhaps something else...

   1989 May, Uwe George, “Venezuela's Islands in Time”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 544

   More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.

   2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion

   Investors face a quandary. Cash offers a return of virtually zero in many developed countries; government-bond yields may have risen in recent weeks but they are still unattractive. Equities have suffered two big bear markets since 2000 and are wobbling again. It is hardly surprising that pension funds, insurers and endowments are searching for new sources of return.

   2013 July 6, “The rise of smart beta”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8843, page 68

   Synonyms: fund, storehouse

2. Spring; fountainhead; wellhead; any collection of water on or under the surface of the ground in which a stream originates.

   The main sources of the Euphrates River are the Karasu and Murat Rivers.

   2 more examples

   The O-erh-ch'i-ssu River begins in the southern section of the lofty A-erh-t'ai Mountains of Sinkiang. This river is over 2,900 kilometers long and has a large delta area rich in minerals such as gold, iron, copper, lead, zinc, mercury, mica, crystal and "ping-chou-shih" [3056 3166 4258 possibly cryolite]. At the source of the O-erh-ch'i-ssu River, the A-erh-t'ai Mountains reach more than 3,000 meters above sea level. The peaks of the mountains are covered with snow year-round, and rainfall is heavy in the summer.

   我國新疆的額爾齊斯河,發源於巍峨的阿爾泰山東部,[…] 額爾齊斯河全長二千九百多公里,它的流域面積很廣,在它流域的廣闊土地上,蘊藏著豐富的寶藏,其中有金,鐵,銅,鉛,鋅,水銀,雲母,氷洲石,水晶等. 額爾齊斯河的發源地阿爾泰山,也是我國的名山,海拔三千米以上,山常年積雪,夏天雨水很多.

   1969 July 3 [1969 May 28], “A View of the O-erh-ch'i-ssu River Delta”, in Translations on People's Republic of China, number 59, United States Joint Publications Research Service, sourced from Hong Kong, Ta Kung Pao, p 8, translation of 額爾齊斯河流域風貌 by 念澄 (in Chinese), →OCLC, Economic, page 11

   Most of the Himalayan rivers have been relatively untouched by dams near their sources. Now the two great Asian powers, India and China, are rushing to harness them as they cut through some of the world's deepest valleys.

   2013 August 16, John Vidal, “Dams endanger ecology of Himalayas”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 10, page 8

3. A reporter's informant.
4. computingSource code.
5. businessThe name of one terminal of a field effect transistor (FET).
6. graph theoryA node in a directed graph whose edges all go out from it; one with no entering edges.
7. category theoryThe domain of a function; the object which a morphism points from.

   Coordinate term: target

present singular third person sources · participle present sourcing · participle past sourced · past sourced

1. To obtain or procure: used especially of a business resource.

   But the point when it would have to look at alternative new-build vehicles was always looming large, and there would inevitably be a finite number of Class 66s it could source from elsewhere, and a limit to other locomotives it could re-power.

   2023 July 12, Pip Dunn, “Class 99s: "ultimate Electro-Diesel"”, in RAIL, number 987, page 52

   1 more example

   The company — which operates four locations in the Bay Area — sources black tea and several varieties of oolong from Taiwan, and brews each cup individually using proprietary machines designed to extract tea at precise temperatures and pressures.

   2026 August 15, Irene Adeline Milanez, “We tasted boba from some of the Bay Area’s most popular chains. Here’s our No. 1”, in San Francisco Chronicle, archived from the original on 16 Aug 2026

2. transitiveTo find information about (a quotation)'s source (from which it comes): to find a citation for.