information

American  

[in-fer-mey-shuhn] / ˌɪn fərˈmeɪ ʃən /

noun

1. knowledge communicated or received concerning a particular fact or circumstance; news.

   information concerning a crime.

   Synonyms:

   advice, intelligence, data

2. knowledge gained through study, communication, research, instruction, etc.; factual data.

   His wealth of general information is amazing.

3. the act or fact of informing.

4. an office, station, service, or employee whose function is to provide information to the public.

   The ticket seller said to ask information for a timetable.

5. Directory Assistance.

6. Law.

   1. an official criminal charge presented, usually by the prosecuting officers of the state, without the interposition of a grand jury.

   2. a criminal charge, made by a public official under oath before a magistrate, of an offense punishable summarily.

   3. the document containing the depositions of witnesses against one accused of a crime.

7. (in information theory) an indication of the number of possible choices of messages, expressible as the value of some monotonic function of the number of choices, usually the logarithm to the base 2.

8. Computers.

   1. important or useful facts obtained as output from a computer by means of processing input data with a program.

      Using the input data, we have come up with some significant new information.

   2. data at any stage of processing (input, output, storage, transmission, etc.).

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information British  

/ ˌɪnfəˈmeɪʃən /

noun

1. knowledge acquired through experience or study

2. knowledge of specific and timely events or situations; news

3. the act of informing or the condition of being informed

4. 1. an office, agency, etc, providing information

   2. ( as modifier )

      information service

5. 1. a charge or complaint made before justices of the peace, usually on oath, to institute summary criminal proceedings

   2. a complaint filed on behalf of the Crown, usually by the attorney general

6. computing

   1. the meaning given to data by the way in which it is interpreted

   2. another word for data

7. informal I don't want to hear any more

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information Idioms  

1. see under gold mine.

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Synonym Usage

Information, knowledge, wisdom are terms for human acquirements through reading, study, and practical experience. Information applies to facts told, read, or communicated that may be unorganized and even unrelated: to pick up useful information. Knowledge is an organized body of information, or the comprehension and understanding consequent on having acquired and organized a body of facts: a knowledge of chemistry. Wisdom is a knowledge of people, life, and conduct, with the facts so thoroughly assimilated as to have produced sagacity, judgment, and insight: to use wisdom in handling people.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• noninformational
  adjective
• informational
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of information

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English infformacion, informacyon “instruction, teaching, a forming of the mind,” from Middle French, Old French informacion, information “criminal inquiry,” from Late Latin informātiō “teaching, instruction,” from Latin: “sketch, first draft; idea, conception”; see inform ¹, -ation

Explanation

If you're unsure of whether to buy the car, you may ask for more information about it. Information is knowledge you gain from studying, investigating, or experiencing something. If your brother unfairly accuses you of finishing the ice cream that was in the freezer, you might respond by saying, "For your information, it was already gone when I got home!" You are conveying information to your brother, but in an annoyed and sarcastic way. Sarcastic or not, information is related to the word inform, whose Latin roots, in and form, basically mean what they sound like: "form into." When you gain information, you are forming an idea.

Example Sentences

The BBC understands the data breach, caused by human error, has been reported to the Information Commissioner's Office and a one-off payment was offered to Brittan.

From BBC • Jun. 3, 2026

The Omani Information Ministry declined to comment on U.S. pressure to sever links to Iran.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 2, 2026

In the 1990s, the agency started sharing with local law enforcement agencies its National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, which collects the unique marks on bullet casings found at shooting scenes.

From Salon • Jun. 2, 2026

Since the beginning of the decade, the S&P 500 Information Technology Sector Index has commanded an ever-larger percentage of the overall index.

From Barron's • May 29, 2026

I added these glimpses of his real life to the non-creepy file of Real Traveler Information in my head.

From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows

Related Words

• advice
• clue
• data
• info
• instruction
• intelligence
• knowledge
• material
• message
• report
• science
• tip
• word