It has always referred to 'the act of informing,' usually in regard to education, instruction, or other knowledge communication. 'Information' is an older word that dates back to the 1300s and has Old French and Middle English origins. Over time 'data' has become the plural of datum. 'Data' comes from a singular Latin word, datum, which originally meant 'something given.' Its early usage dates back to the 1600s. In this case, the fund has underperformed the market significantly. However, this could be misleading if the major stock market indices are up by 12%. For example, your investment in a mutual fund may be up by 5% and you may conclude that the fund managers are doing a great job. Often this is the result of incomplete data or a lack of context. When this leads to erroneous conclusions, it is said that the data are misleading.

For example, before a drug is approved by the FDA, the manufacturer must conduct clinical trials and present a lot of data to demonstrate that the drug is safe.īecause data needs to be interpreted and analyzed, it is quite possible - indeed, very probable - that it will be interpreted incorrectly.

Often data is required to back up a claim or conclusion (information) derived or deduced from it.

is increasing while that from Australia is decreasing is meaningful information.

The number of visitors to a website by country is an example of data.

If this data is organized and analyzed to find that global temperature is rising, then that is information.

The history of temperature readings all over the world for the past 100 years is data.

Whether they are used interchangeably depends somewhat on the usage of 'data' - its context and grammar. 'Data' and 'information' are intricately tied together, whether one is recognizing them as two separate words or using them interchangeably, as is common today. Information provides context for data.įor example, a list of dates - data - is meaningless without the information that makes the dates relevant (dates of holiday). When data are processed, interpreted, organized, structured or presented so as to make them meaningful or useful, they are called information. We imbue them with meaning.' -Statistician Nate Silver in the book The Signal and the Noiseĭata are simply facts or figures - bits of information, but not information itself.

'The numbers have no way of speaking for themselves.

Information synonym