Noun
1. 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"2. a person who supplies information
3. 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"4. a document (or organization) from which information is obtained;
"the reporter had two sources for the story"5. a facility where something is available
6. anything that provides inspiration for later work
7. someone who originates or causes or initiates something;
"he was the generator of several complaints"8. (technology) a process by which energy or a substance enters a system;
"a heat source""a source of carbon dioxide"9. 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"