Upstream

//ʌpˈstɹiːm// adj, adv, noun, verb

adj, adv, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Part of the river towards the upstream direction.

    "The total depth of water at the upstream was measured by using a pointer attached to a carriage sitting on the water table walls."

  2. 2
    The original developers or maintainers of software.
Verb
  1. 1
    To stream upward. intransitive
  2. 2
    To have (a software library, patch, etc.) accepted by the original developers of the related software, so that they maintain and distribute it. transitive

    "I'd be more than happy to upstream your patch."

Adjective
  1. 1
    In a direction against the flow of a current or stream of fluid (typically water); upriver.
  2. 2
    Occurring earlier than something else; (also, usually, especially) being an influence on something else; causing a consequence for something else. figuratively

    "Input entry is upstream of input validation in the runtime process."

  3. 3
    Occurring earlier than something else; (also, usually, especially) being an influence on something else; causing a consequence for something else.; Involving exploration and pre-production rather than refining and selling. figuratively
  4. 4
    Occurring earlier than something else; (also, usually, especially) being an influence on something else; causing a consequence for something else.; In the direction from the client to the server. figuratively
  5. 5
    Occurring earlier than something else; (also, usually, especially) being an influence on something else; causing a consequence for something else.; Maintained, owned, or associated with the original developers of the given software; in contrast to a modified version downstream. figuratively

    "The outage was caused by an upstream error in a payments library."

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    Occurring earlier than something else; (also, usually, especially) being an influence on something else; causing a consequence for something else.; Towards the leading end (5′ end) of a DNA molecule. figuratively
Adjective
  1. 1
    in the direction against a stream's current wordnet
Adverb
  1. 1
    Against the current.

    "In another moment a huge wave, like a muddy tidal bore, but almost scaldingly hot, came sweeping round the bend up-stream."

Adverb
  1. 1
    toward the source or against the current wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
upriverariseascendgo upgrow uplevitate

Example

More examples

"There is a bridge two miles upstream."

Etymology

From up- + stream.

Related phrases

swim upstreamupstream loan5 endpre production

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.