data
/ˈdɑːtə/noun
data is spelled D-A-T-A: 4 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 219 times per million words in written English, the 460th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Data, the name). As a noun, data means “A representation of information in a computer (as symbols, quantities, sound, images or videos) which is stored, processed or transmitted in the form…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in data?
| Letters | 4: D-A-T-A |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 219 times per million words; the 460th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is data?
Data appears 219 times per million words in written English, the 460th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Data, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce data?
- UK /ˈdɑːtə/
- /ɖɑʈɑ/
- Australia [ˈdäːɾə]
Data has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-data.ogg, En-us-data1.ogg, En-us-data2.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with data?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as data from its last stressed vowel (/ɑtə/, British pronunciation):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: adat.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
What does data mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A representation of information in a computer (as symbols, quantities, sound, images or videos) which is stored, processed or transmitted in the form of electrical signals, records on magnetic tape or punched cards, etc.
Data can be sent through email.
- 2
Material recorded and known or assumed as facts and used as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation, represented especially in the form of numbers, and usually structured (such as statistics).
Near-synonyms: dataset, data set, data points
- 3
Ellipsis of mobile data (“digital information transmitted using the cellular telephone network rather than Wi-Fi”).
run out of data
- 4
plural of datum
Holonym: data set
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate data?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of data: D.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Data in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense information:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does data come from?
Borrowed from Latin data, nominative plural of datum (“that is given”), neuter past participle of dō (“to give”); by surface analysis, dat(um) + -a. Doublet of date.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).