What does crosschecking mean?
Crosschecking is the practice of confirming the accuracy of information by testing it against a second, independent source or by applying an alternative method. Rather than simply repeating a calculation or observation — what we might call double-checking — crosschecking deliberately introduces a different vantage point: a journalist confirms a claim with another witness, an accountant reconciles figures between two ledgers, a scientist validates results with separate instruments, and a researcher verifies citations across databases. This makes crosschecking a cornerstone of rigorous work in journalism, finance, science, medicine, and aviation, where errors carry real consequences. The word signals diligence and intellectual honesty; to say a finding has been crosschecked implies it has survived scrutiny rather than resting on a single reading. A distinct sense exists in ice hockey, where 'cross-checking' names an illegal check delivered with both hands on the stick. For everyday users, crosschecking remains a compact way of describing careful, corroborated verification — the habit of trusting agreement between independent checks over any single source.
An act or instance of verifying information by comparison with an independent source or method; in ice hockey, the act of checking an opponent with both hands on the stick extended from the body.
"Each translation underwent crosschecking against the original manuscript."
In sports writing, always refers to the ice hockey penalty; in other contexts it denotes verification.
To verify or confirm something by examining it against a second source or by an alternative procedure (usually written as 'cross-check').
"Please crosscheck these figures with last quarter's report."
The verb is conventionally hyphenated; the gerund 'crosschecking' serves as noun or participle.
As a count noun referring to individual instances of verification, the plural is 'crosschecks'; the mass sense ('crosschecking takes time') has no plural.
"The report included three separate crosschecks of the same data."
Before calculators were trusted, navigators and accountants survived on one rule: never trust a single computation — crosscheck it, because even honest numbers lie.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of crosschecking
The word combines the prefix 'cross-', meaning transverse or reciprocal, with 'check', which traces back through Middle English to Old French 'eschequier' and ultimately Persian 'shah' via chess — a check being a threat requiring verification and response. The compound arose in English in the late nineteenth century, first in accounting and printing, where figures or proofs were checked against one another at right angles or from opposing directions. Its adoption spread through scientific and journalistic usage in the twentieth century, while ice hockey formalized its own 'cross-checking' penalty in early rulebooks.
Related word forms
How crosschecking is actually used
Crosschecking carries a connotation of rigor and professional diligence; it is common in journalism, auditing, science, aviation, and fact-checking contexts. The hyphenated form 'cross-check' is traditional and still frequent, though the closed form is increasingly accepted. The sporting sense applies almost exclusively to ice hockey and should be disambiguated from the verification sense.
Easily confused with crosschecking
A cross-reference merely points to related material elsewhere, while crosschecking actively verifies that information agrees across sources.
Double-checking repeats the same verification process a second time, whereas crosschecking compares against an independent source or method.
Cross-examination is the legal questioning of a witness by the opposing party, not the general practice of verifying facts across sources.