# data

Pronunciation: US say "DAY-tuh" /ˈdeɪ.tə/; say "DAH-tuh" UK /ˈdɑː.tə/, AUS [ˈdäː.ɾə]

## Noun

1. Facts, figures, or observations collected or recorded as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation (treated as plural, as the plural of datum, or as singular).
   - Simple: Facts or numbers collected to help people understand something, discuss it, or work things out.
   - _The committee based its recommendation on data gathered over five years._
   - _Survey data showed a clear shift in public opinion about the new policy._
2. Information represented inside a computer (such as symbols, numbers, sound, images, or video) that is stored, processed, or transmitted.
   - Simple: Information that a computer stores, works with, or sends, like text, numbers, pictures, and sound.
   - _The backup server copies critical data every night._
   - _Compressing the file reduces how much data must travel across the network._
3. Internet access and information carried over a mobile phone network rather than Wi-Fi, or the amount of it a phone plan allows (short for mobile data). — Ellipsis of mobile data (“digital information transmitted using the cellular telephone network rather than Wi-Fi”).
   - Simple: Internet your phone gets over the mobile network, not Wi-Fi, or how much your plan allows. Short for mobile data.
   - _Streaming music on the train burns through my data._
   - _Her plan includes unlimited data, so she rarely bothers connecting to Wi-Fi._

## Origin

Latin dō ("I give") has the neuter past participle datum ("that which is given"), and English borrowed its nominative plural, data. Date is a doublet.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/data (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).