The word "data" : is it singular or plural?

[JBoy]

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. Datum is singular; data is plural.

Like criterion and criteria.

Medium and media. Television is a medium. The broadcast media are plural.

[targetpractice]

3. "Data Point" is colloquial for "datum"

Data is is more than one data point... That's my theory, and I'm sticking with it. ;-)

[Orsino]

8. Like "sheep unit" for, well, "sheep." n/t

[pokerfan]

2. It's Latin

But its meaning has drifted over the years...

Data is a plural of datum, which is originally a Latin noun meaning “something given.” Today, data is used in English both as a plural noun meaning “facts or pieces of information” (These data are described more fully elsewhere) and as a singular mass noun meaning “information”: Not much data is available on flood control in Brazil. It is almost always treated as a plural in scientific and academic writing. In other types of writing it is either singular or plural. The singular datum meaning “a piece of information” is now rare in all types of writing. In surveying and civil engineering, where datum has specialized senses, the plural form is datums. (Random House, Inc. 2009.)

Datums? :wtf: That hurts my ears.

[baldguy]

4. "Data" is singular.

Just like "Worf"

[Ptah]

5. I added up all the datums, boss.

[woofless]

6. Yes.

[BlooInBloo]

7. Plural, but illliterates are well on their way to making its singular use officially correct.

[Odin2005]

9. It's a mass noun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_noun
I have a cup of soup
I have a ton of gravel
I have a gallon of water
I have 5 terabits of data

"datum" is hardly ever used anymore.

[MajorChode]

11. Au contraire, datum is used all the time in engineering applications

It's generally used as a position of reference.

[Blue_In_AK]

10. Plural of datum,

from a strictly Latin standpoint.

[Crabby Appleton]

12. plural - data are a bunch of datums. nt

[slay]

13. It's an android on Star Trek:TNG

Duh. :P