See Also: data(dictionary)
Raw Data(money)
Data(medicine)
Raw data(health)
data(dictionary)
First Data(finance)
data encryption(encyclopedia)
Forex data(finance)
data mining(encyclopedia)
Electronic Data Sys(finance)

data (iou)



data noun. M17.
[Latin, pl. of DATUM.]
I. pl. & collect. sing.
Things given or granted; things known or assumed as facts, and made the basis of reasoning or calculation. M17.
E. F. Benson She had to make the best plans on the data that were hers.
Facts, esp. numerical facts, collected together for reference or information. L19.
B. Lovell These data confirmed..that the surface of Venus must have a high temperature.
The quantities, characters, or symbols on which operations are performed by computers and other automatic equipment, and which may be stored and transmitted in the form of electrical signals, records on magnetic, optical, or mechanical recording media, etc. M20.
Computer Weekly They have done little to analyse and interpret this data.
II. sing.
A piece of information, a statistic. rare. E19.
Comb.: data bank a place where data are stored in large amounts; database an organized store of data for computer processing; data capture: see CAPTURE noun 6; datacom(s), data communications the use of communication networks and devices to transmit digital information; data entry the process or operation of inputting data to a computer system; dataglove a device worn like a glove and containing sensors linked to a representation of a hand in a computer display, allowing the manual manipulation of images in virtual reality; data link a telecommunications link over which data are transmitted; data-logger: see LOGGER noun1 2; data mining the practice of examining large pre-existing databases in order to generate new information; data processing the performance by automatic means of any operations on empirical data, such as classifying or analysing them; data processor a machine for data processing; data protection the legal regulation of access to data stored in computers; data retrieval the obtaining of data stored on a computer system; data sheet a leaflet containing a summary of useful information on a subject; data stream = STREAM noun 5e; data structure the way data are organized in a computer, in so far as it affects the use or modification of the data; data terminal: at which a person can enter data into a computer-based system or receive data from one; data type a particular kind of data item, as defined by the values it can take or the operations that can be performed on it; data warehouse a large store of data accumulated from a wide range of sources within a company and used to guide management decisions.
? The sing. uses are freq. regarded as erroneous.