Information Definition & Meaning

American

British

Idioms

Related Words

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Examples

Related Words

Synonyms 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.).

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 information Idioms

1. see under gold mine.

Related Words

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

• informational adjective
• noninformational 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”; inform 1, -ation

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Grindr, which has been scrutinized for its past handling of sensitive information, including users’ HIV status, has tried to soothe worries about privacy concerns as it goes all-in on AI.

From Los Angeles Times

The governor reads his daily briefings a few times in the morning, underlines sentences and writes down notes to retain the information on yellow cards he keeps in his suit pockets.

From Los Angeles Times

"I searched other facilities but couldn't find him. I came here at dawn to find out what happened to him, but no information. He was here for treatment."

From BBC

Sims also did important work on fiscal policy and inflation, and on how the limits on people’s ability to process information affect the economy.

From The Wall Street Journal

Where Tansy came up with her information we didn’t know.

From Literature

Related Words

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

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.