The worddata is most often used as a singular collectivemass noun in educated everyday usage.[1][2] However, due to the history andetymology of the word, considerable controversy has existed on whether it should be considered a mass noun used with verbs conjugated in the singular, or should be treated as the plural of the now-rarely-useddatum.
In one sense,data is theplural form ofdatum.Datum actually can also be acount noun with the pluraldatums (see usage indatum article) that can be used with cardinal numbers (e.g., "80 datums");data (originally a Latin plural) is not used like a normal count noun with cardinal numbers and can be plural with plural determiners such asthese andmany, or it can be used as a mass noun with a verb in thesingular form.[3] Even when a very small quantity of data is referenced (one number, for example), the phrasepiece of data is often used, as opposed todatum. The debate over appropriate usage continues,[4][5][6] but "data" as a singular form is far more common.[7]
InEnglish, the worddatum is still used in the general sense of "an item given". Incartography,geography,nuclear magnetic resonance andtechnical drawing, it is often used to refer to a single specificreference datum from which distances to all other data are measured. Any measurement or result is adatum, thoughdata point is now far more common.[8]
Data is indeed most often used as a singular mass noun in educated everyday usage.[9][10] Some major newspapers, such asThe New York Times, use it either in the singular or plural. InThe New York Times, the phrases "the survey data are still being analyzed" and "the first year for which data is available" have appeared within one day.[11]The Wall Street Journal explicitly allows this usage in its style guide.[12]TheAssociated Press style guide classifiesdata as a collective noun that takes the singular when treated as a unit but the plural when referring to individual items (e.g., "The data is sound" and "The data have been carefully collected").[13]
Inscientific writing,data is often treated as a plural, as inThese data do not support the conclusions, but the word is also used as a singular mass entity likeinformation (e.g., in computing and related disciplines).[14] British usage now widely accepts treatingdata as singular in standard English,[15] including everyday newspaper usage[16] at least in non-scientific use.[17] UK scientific publishing still prefers treating it as a plural.[18] Some UK university style guides recommend usingdata for both singular and plural use,[19] and others recommend treating it only as a singular in connection with computers.[20] TheIEEE Computer Society allows usage ofdata as either a mass noun or plural based on author preference,[21] whileIEEE in the editorial style manual indicates to always use the plural form.[22] Some professional organizations and style guides[23] require that authors treatdata as a plural noun. For example, theAir Force Flight Test Center once stated that the worddata is always plural, never singular.[24][full citation needed]
...in educated everyday usage as represented byThe Guardian newspaper, it is nowadays most often used as a singular.