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. )

Explanation

Metadata is a collection of information, or data, that describes another set of data. In other words, metadata is "data about data." No kidding. The classic example of metadata is a library's card catalog — it's a complete system of data that's all about another set of data, the books that library holds. Today you'll find that metadata is primarily digital, existing on web pages and in computer files. Metadata tells you things about the data it describes, often including what the data is for, when and where it was created, and who created it.

Example Sentences

Signal also goes further than WhatsApp on data privacy, making metadata such as when the message was delivered and its recipient invisible even to the company itself.

From Barron's • Apr. 25, 2026

He also saw “pre-project metadata, hidden defined names, institutional data-terminal markers, real lender or counterparty names, irregular numeric precision, and other features that raised serious provenance questions,” the suit said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 23, 2026

Avid’s Media Composer, the editing system used on most professional film and TV productions, will now include a Gemini extension that could enhance metadata and generate B-Roll.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 16, 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

The metadata directive contains all data that is used to generate the PG header and the PG catalog entry.

From The Project Gutenberg RST Manual by Marcello Perathoner