metadata

American  

[met-uh-dey-tuh, ‐-dat-uh, ‐-dah-tuh] / ˈmɛt əˌdeɪ tə, ‐ˌdæt ə, ‐ˌdɑ tə /

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.

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metadata British  

plural noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of metadata

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

Example Sentences

“It remains very difficult to replicate or displace much of the knowledge, metadata and workflows incumbent systems have amassed,” analysts at Deutsche Bank wrote this week.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026

And if all of this metadata wasn’t spooky enough, here’s a quick reminder as to who contested the Super Bowl in 2015: The New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks.

From Barron's • Feb. 7, 2026

Previously, researchers could only search for descriptive metadata and then had to download the full datasets to access raw sequences.

From Science Daily • Oct. 28, 2025

Videos shot on mobiles carry metadata, which includes the digital record of the time, date and place where they were shot.

From BBC • Sep. 23, 2025

This directive inserts the PG header as generated from the metadata.

From The Project Gutenberg RST Manual by Marcello Perathoner