source

Noun

• a publication (or a passage from a publication) that is referred to
  • he carried an armful of references back to his desk
    
  • he spent hours looking for the source of that quotation
    

• anything (a person or animal or plant or substance) in which an infectious agent normally lives and multiplies
  • an infectious agent depends on a reservoir for its survival
    

• (technology) a process by which energy or a substance enters a system
  • a heat source
    
  • a source of carbon dioxide
    

• someone who originates or causes or initiates something
  • he was the generator of several complaints
    

• a person who supplies information

• a facility where something is available

• anything that provides inspiration for later work

• a document (or organization) from which information is obtained
  • the reporter had two sources for the story
    

• the place where something begins, where it springs into being
  • the Italian beginning of the Renaissance
    
  • Jupiter was the origin of the radiation
    
  • Pittsburgh is the source of the Ohio River
    
  • communism's Russian root
    

Verb

• specify the origin of
  • The writer carefully sourced her report
    

• get (a product) from another country or business
  • She sourced a supply of carpet
    
  • They are sourcing from smaller companies
    

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  reference , reservoir , generator , author , informant , seed , germ , beginning , origin , root , rootage