metadata

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

|Updated on: 21 Jun 2018

Editor's Note: How metadata Was Formed

Definition of metadata

: data that provides information about other data

metadata was our Word of the Day on 05/30/2015. Hear the podcast!

Recent Examples of metadata from the Web

That request encompasses 832 emails, which amounts to 5,100 pages of text, repetitive content and extraneous metadata, Morris said.

— emily k. coleman, Lake County News-Sun, "Lake County Lines: Hunt on for retail options at proposed North Chicago development," 17 June 2018
The legislation provides only one condition under which a company may use data or metadata about users’ electronic communications: obtaining consumers’ explicit and informed permission to use their information for a specific, agreed-upon purpose.

— new york times, BostonGlobe.com, "Next privacy battle in europe is over this new law," 28 May 2018
Yet now the same people who lionized Edward Snowden for stealing secrets about metadata—which collected phone numbers, not names—claim the FBI informant is no big deal.

— the editorial board, WSJ, "The FBI Informant Who Wasn’t Spying," 20 May 2018
Documents displayed this way can also have their metadata displayed in a sidebar rather than having to call up a separate Info window.

— samuel axon, Ars Technica, "Apple announces macOS 10.14 “Mojave”," 4 June 2018
In 2006 the European Union issued a directive requiring mobile-phone firms to keep customers’ metadata for up to two years.

— The Economist, "Does China’s digital police state have echoes in the West?," 31 May 2018
The metadata for the ads included chosen geographic area as well as the age range, gender, and interests of the Facebook users who were shown the ads.

— NBC News, "Sean Hannity, Black Lives Matter among targets of Russian influence campaign, disclosures show," 10 May 2018
And metadata associated with some of the emails suggests that Broidy’s private documents were being rifled by a team of at least two dozen people with sequential user profiles, indicating a robust organizational structure behind the theft.

— Bloomberg.com, "Elliott Broidy and the GOP’s Bad Hacking Karma," 4 May 2018
Analysts queried metadata harvested from that program for information about an American 16,924 times in 2017.

— charlie savage, New York Times, "N.S.A. Triples Collection of Data From U.S. Phone Companies," 4 May 2018

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

How metadata Was Formed

It's easy to find data on the source of "metadata": the word was formed by combining "data" with "meta-," which means "transcending" and is often used to describe a new but related discipline designed to deal critically with the original one. "Meta-" was first used in that way in "metaphysics" and has been extended to a number of other disciplines, giving us such words as "metapsychology" and "metamathematics." "Metadata" takes the "transcending" aspect a step further, applying it to the concept of pure information instead of a discipline. "Metadata" is a fairly new word (it appeared in the latter half of the 20th century), whereas "data" can be traced back to the middle of the 17th century.