open source
7 synonyms and 2 antonyms for open source, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Adjective — Of software: released with its underlying code made publicly available under a licence that lets anyone read it, use it, change it and share their changed version.
Synonyms
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Synonyms by Meaning
1. adjective technical
Of software: released with its underlying code made publicly available under a licence that lets anyone read it, use it, change it and share their changed version.
“We chose an open source database because we could read the code ourselves rather than trust a sales brochure.”
Opposites
2. noun
The wider practice and community of developing software in the open, with contributions accepted from people outside the original team.
“She got into open source by fixing a typo in a documentation page and never really stopped.”
3. adjective
More generally, of designs, hardware, data or research: published so that others may freely inspect, reuse and modify it.
“The lab published an open source design for the ventilator so hospitals could build their own.”
Opposites
How to use open source
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
Standard in technology writing and increasingly used outside it. Often hyphenated when it sits directly before a noun: an open-source licence.
Etymology
A compound of open and source, from source code, the human-readable form of a program before it is compiled or run.
Full origin of open source →