data

noun, plural in form but singular or plural in construction, often attributive da·ta \ ˈdā-tə , ˈda- also ˈdä- \

|Updated on: 14 Jun 2018

Usage guide: Is data singular or plural?

Examples: data in a Sentence

Definition of data

1 : factual information (such as measurements or statistics) used as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation

the data is plentiful and easily available
—H. A. Gleason, Jr.

comprehensive data on economic growth have been published
—N. H. Jacoby

2 : information in digital form that can be transmitted or processed

3 : information output by a sensing device or organ that includes both useful and irrelevant or redundant information and must be processed to be meaningful

Is data singular or plural?

Data leads a life of its own quite independent of datum, of which it was originally the plural. It occurs in two constructions: as a plural noun (like earnings), taking a plural verb and plural modifiers (such as these, many, a few) but not cardinal numbers, and serving as a referent for plural pronouns (such as they, them); and as an abstract mass noun (like information), taking a singular verb and singular modifiers (such as this, much, little), and being referred to by a singular pronoun (it). Both constructions are standard. The plural construction is more common in print, evidently because the house style of several publishers mandates it.

Examples of data in a Sentence

Smith, himself a stay-at-home dad and a journalist, mixes accessible summaries of social-science data with anecdotes drawn from interviews with couples in which the men have chosen, or have been compelled by economic circumstance, to become primary caregivers to their children. —Eduardo M. Pealver, Commonweal, 11 Sept. 2009
He plays Chuck Bartowski, a computer-tech expert with the Buy More store's Nerd Herd … who unwittingly becomes a secret agent when government data is downloaded to his brain. —Michael Logan, TV Guide, September 10-16, 2007
As measurements get better and more data pour in, physicists will bring those errors under control and chart exciting new territory. But for many, the wait is a strain. —Charles Seife, Science, 2 May 2003
By studying obscure demographic and economic data, he deduced that the Soviets were in crisis—and spending a far bigger slice of its national income on defense than anyone had suspected. —John Barry et al., Newsweek, 21 May 2001

Recent Examples of data from the Web

Moran cautions that her data is only from New York and that patterns may differ in other states.

— caitlin dewey, chicagotribune.com, "Soda ad blitzes conspicuously match food stamp schedules, study says," 7 June 2018
Additional information will come from the European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter, which began its scientific data gathering a couple of months ago.

— kenneth chang, New York Times, "Life on Mars? Rover’s Latest Discovery Puts It ‘On the Table’," 7 June 2018
But go deeper into our findings, especially about married or dating couples, and the data is a bit more...patriarchal.

— benjy hansen-bundy, Glamour, "What 1,147 Men Really Think About #MeToo," 30 May 2018
Governments can fine organizations up to 4% of their global revenue for noncompliance, including for failure to process data lawfully, for not having a data protection officer and for security breaches.

— rick noack, latimes.com, "European Union's new privacy law made some websites go dark today. Here's what else has changed," 25 May 2018
Microsoft released a new data collection viewer tool as part of the recent Windows 10 April 2018 Update to help dispel those worries.

— thuy ong, The Verge, "Microsoft expands data privacy tools ahead of GDPR," 24 May 2018
Monitor your data forever and hope to live forever.

— gabriel winant, The New Republic, "Barbara Ehrenreich’s radical critique of wellness and self-improvement," 23 May 2018
LifeBridge is the latest health system to have its patient data accessed.

— andrea k. mcdaniels, baltimoresun.com, "LifeBridge data breach exposes personal information of 500,000," 22 May 2018
Kyle Shiel, a senior planner, cautioned that the data is from outside sources — www.apartments.com and www.rent.com.

— jesse leavenworth, Courant Community, "Manchester Housing Data Shows Rents Up In 2017," 17 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'data.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.