[ 'deɪtə ]
■ noun
1》 facts and statistics used for reference or analysis.
↘ Philosophy things known or assumed as facts, making the basis of reasoning.
2》 the quantities, characters, or symbols on which operations are performed by a computer.
Origin
C17: from L., plural of datum .
Usage
In Latin, ~ is the plural of datum and, historically and in specialized scientific fields, it is also treated as a plural in English. In modern non-scientific use, however, it is often treated as a mass noun, similar to a word like information , which cannot normally have a plural and which takes a singular verb. Sentences such as ~ was collected over a number of years are now widely accepted in standard English.