Is “data” plural or singular?
The singular of data is datum. Data is plural, and the more commonly used of the two.
What the definition of data?
According to the Online Dictionary, the word data is understood as:
individual facts, statistics, or items of information. For example, “These data represent the results of our analyses.”
What’s the plural of data?
Data is plural. Datum is singular of data.
Nouns that end in -um/-a
| singular | plural |
| phenomenon | phenomena or phenomenons |
| criterion | criteria |
| bacterion | bacteria |
| medium | media |
| datum | data |
| spectrum | spectra or spectrums |
Examples of data used in context
1. Here, we draw together recent data on diverse centriole movements to decipher common themes in how centrioles move.
2. In newer sites, these flight progress strips have been replaced by electronic data presented on computer screens.
3. According to data from 2008, the cosmetic industry has grown constantly in France for 40 consecutive years.
4. There is little data on their life span, but it is believed to be at least fifty years, and some may live more than a century.
5. One way this is visible is from data on church marriages during the 19th century.
Examples of datum in context:
The following sentences show the correct use of the word datum in context:
1. The journal’s continuous pagination through each volume makes this datum redundant, of course.
2. The lame argument for using this datum is that some of the paper maps were based on it.
3. The weblike character of the text means that each datum will ramify in implications throughout.
4. That becomes just another datum assumed when choosing amongst alternative choices.
5. As noted above, multiple lines of evidence are preferable to dependence upon a single datum or technique.
Origin of the word data
From etymonline on data:
1640s, “a fact given or granted,” classical plural of datum, from Latin datum “(thing) given”.
What’s the difference between they’re, their, and there?
Sources
