Definition:Data/Linguistic Note
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Definition
The word data is a plural noun.
Its singular is datum, which derives from the Latin for thing which is (or has been) given.
Like many other nouns whose plural form is irregular, in popular usage data is often (technically incorrectly) used as both the singular and plural forms.
Sources
- 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): data (singular datum)
- 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): data (singular datum)
- 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): data