Metadata

How to spell metadata

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce metadata

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does metadata mean?

1. nounInformation that describes or summarises other data, such as the author, date, or size of a digital file.

Metadata in a sentence

• The photo's metadata recorded the exact time and location it was taken.

• Librarians add metadata so that every record can be searched by author and subject.

Where does metadata come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This is a modern compound that joins two very old roots. The prefix meta- comes from the Greek meta, meaning 'after', 'beyond', or 'about', the same element that gives us 'metaphor' and 'metamorphosis'; in twentieth-century usage it took on the handy sense of 'at a higher level, referring to itself'. The second half, data, is the Latin plural of datum, literally 'a thing given', from the verb dare 'to give'. Stitched together, metadata literally means 'data about data', that is, descriptive information that tells you about other information, such as the date a file was created or the author of a document. The term emerged in the computing and library world of the mid to late twentieth century and spread widely once digital records became routine. A common spelling trap is the join in the middle: it is one solid word with a single 't' bridging 'meta' and 'data', not 'meta-data' or 'metta'.

How the word is built

• meta- (Greek: about, beyond)
• data (Latin: things given, plural of datum)