plural of datum
"The researchers spent weeks cleaning up the raw data before they could run their final analysis."
Information, especially in a scientific or computational context, or with the implication that it is organized.
In plain English: Data is just a fancy word for facts and numbers that computers collect to help them work.
"The company collected data on customer preferences to improve their service."
Usage: Use "data" as a plural noun referring to multiple pieces of information or facts, rather than as a singular mass noun like "information." Say "the data are" when treating it as plural items and "the data is" only if you are using it colloquially as an uncountable concept.
Data entered English as a borrowing from the Latin word datum, which literally means "something that has been given." Although it shares an origin with the word date, data specifically refers to facts or statistics rather than a point in time.