Real Dictionary

data
a dot or tiny mark [...]
a series of observations, measurements, or facts; information [...]
a substance, situation, or environment in which something has its origin, takes form, or is enclosed [...]
the act of acquiring or gaining possession [...]
the act of extracting or the condition of being extracted [...]
You can refer to information as data, especially when it is in the form of facts or statistics that you can analyse. In American English, data is usually a plural noun. In technical or formal British English, data is sometimes a plural noun, but at other
uncountable noun: Data is information that can be stored and used by a computer program.