Data

Research

Information collected to answer a research question — qualitative, quantitative, or mixed, and "raw" before cleaning/processing.

Sources

1. Merriam-Webster — data merriam-webster.com accessed 23 September 2026

Merriam-Webster: “factual information (such as measurements or statistics) used as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation”, and “information in digital form that can be transmitted or processed”. Latin, plural of datum; first recorded 1630. On the argument this entry exists to settle, the dictionary records both usages as standard: plural verbs in formal and technical writing (“the data are compelling”), singular where data functions like information (“the data is compelling”). Pick one and hold it across a document.

Merriam-Webster is cited as the dictionary of record: where an entry defines a word rather than a position, a dictionary is the primary source for it. The research usage above is this lexicon’s own.

Deeper treatment: this term also has a full entry in the Business Library.

Related terms

• Abbreviation
• Abstract
• Abstraction
• Academic Database
• Analysis
• Annotation

From the AJG lexicon archive (July 2026).