upstream
upstream Lexical Profile
upstream Game Scores & Validity
• adverb
In, into, or toward the direction opposite to the current of a stream or river; toward the source.
"Every autumn, thousands of salmon swim upstream to spawn in the gravelly beds where they hatched."
Toward an earlier stage in an industrial, biological, or organizational process.
"Public health officials are looking upstream to address the social determinants of illness before patients ever need hospital care."
• adjective
Situated or moving in the direction opposite to the flow of a river or stream; closer to the source.
"Heavy rainfall in the upstream communities caused the river levels to rise rapidly in the valley below."
Relating to an earlier stage in a process, production cycle, or supply chain, such as the exploration and extraction of raw materials.
"The energy company invested heavily in its upstream operations, focusing on finding new offshore natural gas reserves."
Relating to data transmitted from a client device or user to a central server or network provider, or to an original software source.
"Video conferencing requires sufficient upstream bandwidth to transmit high-definition audio and video without lag."
• noun
The original project, repository, or main branch of source code from which a software distribution or fork is derived.
"Before adding new features to our local fork, we should sync our repository with the upstream."
• verb
To submit patches, bug fixes, or code modifications back to the original software project or main repository (in software development).
"Our engineering team upstreamed the security patch so that the entire open-source community could benefit from it."
• Rhymes for upstream
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.