metadata

[ met-uh-dey-tuh, ‐-dat-uh, ‐-dah-tuh ]

noun

, (usually used with a singular verb)

1. data that describes, annotates, or gives information about other data, including but not limited to tags in a programming code, information about a digital file's characteristics, or a library catalog showing the location and call number of books: In their surveillance operations, intelligence agencies were able to access such metadata as the phone numbers involved and duration of phone calls.

   Search engine spiders use content and HTML metadata to index websites.

   In their surveillance operations, intelligence agencies were able to access such metadata as the phone numbers involved and duration of phone calls.

metadata

plural noun

1. computing information that is held as a description of stored data

Word History and Origins

Origin of metadata¹

First recorded in 1965–70; meta- (in the sense “analyzing material at a higher level”) + data ( def )

Example Sentences

We downloaded all 6,366 of the contracts on the site, along with associated metadata, such as the contract’s start and end date, county and municipality, and the parties involved.

From ProPublica

The process starts when a publisher uploads owned video content with metadata — titles, descriptions and keywords.

From Digiday

This technology can also streamline workflows through AI-based auto-tagging, structured metadata and advanced search for real-time collaboration and on-the-fly content changes.

From Search Engine Land

When getting fewer views than expected, marketers often think that they didn’t use the right keywords or metadata.

From Search Engine Watch

In order to figure out which ads to evaluate, publishers rely on metadata from the ad delivered by demand sources, and the ads are sometimes incorrectly labeled.

From Digiday

That was a failure of intelligence, and they had all the metadata in the world.

From The Daily Beast

When asked, “Is metadata retained after video files are destroyed?”

From The Daily Beast

The bit rates were poor, metadata inconsistent or nonexistent.

From The Daily Beast

First, the NSA will no longer itself hold the vast store of telephone metadata.

From The Daily Beast

Once the NSA has the metadata in its system, it retains it for five years, before destroying it on a rolling basis.

From The Daily Beast