INFORMATION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does information mean? 

• INFORMATION (noun)
  The noun INFORMATION has 5 senses:

1. a message received and understood

2. knowledge acquired through study or experience or instruction

3. formal accusation of a crime

4. a collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn

5. (communication theory) a numerical measure of the uncertainty of an outcome

  Familiarity information: INFORMATION used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INFORMATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A message received and understood

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

info; information

Hypernyms ("information" is a kind of...):

content; message; subject matter; substance (what a communication that is about something is about)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "information"):

intelligence; news; tidings; word (information about recent and important events)

insider information (important information about the plans or condition of a corporation that has not been released to the public; use for personal profit is illegal)

arcanum; secret (information known only to a special group)

secret (something that should remain hidden from others (especially information that is not to be passed on))

confirmation (information that confirms or verifies)

propaganda (information that is spread for the purpose of promoting some cause)

course of study; curriculum; program; programme; syllabus (an integrated course of academic studies)

news (information reported in a newspaper or news magazine)

evidence ((law) all the means by which any alleged matter of fact whose truth is investigated at judicial trial is established or disproved)

read-out; readout (the information displayed or recorded on an electronic device)

tabular matter; tabulation (information set out in tabular form)

skinny (confidential information about a topic or person)

stuff (information in some unspecified form)

report; report card (a written evaluation of a student's scholarship and deportment)

update (information or data that updates)

intelligence; intelligence information (secret information about an enemy (or potential enemy))

nuts and bolts (detailed practical information about how something works or how something can be accomplished)

news (informal information of any kind that is not previously known to someone)

database (an organized body of related information)

gen (informal term for information)

data format; data formatting; format; formatting (the organization of information according to preset specifications (usually for computer processing))

fact (a statement or assertion of verified information about something that is the case or has happened)

details; inside information (true confidential information)

material (information (data or ideas or observations) that can be used or reworked into a finished form)

misinformation (information that is incorrect)

factoid (something resembling a fact; unverified (often invented) information that is given credibility because it appeared in print)

ammunition (information that can be used to attack or defend a claim or argument or viewpoint)

Derivation:

inform (impart knowledge of some fact, state of affairs, or event to)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Knowledge acquired through study or experience or instruction

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("information" is a kind of...):

cognition; knowledge; noesis (the psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "information"):

acquaintance; conversance; conversancy; familiarity (personal knowledge or information about someone or something)

data point; datum (an item of factual information derived from measurement or research)

input; stimulant; stimulation; stimulus (any stimulating information or event; acts to arouse action)

tip-off (inside information that something is going to happen)

predictor (information that supports a probabilistic estimate of future events)

evidence; grounds (your basis for belief or disbelief; knowledge on which to base belief)

descriptor (a piece of stored information that is used to identify an item in an information storage and retrieval system)

background; background knowledge (information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem)

circumstance; condition; consideration (information that should be kept in mind when making a decision)

example; illustration; instance; representative (an item of information that is typical of a class or group)

fact (a piece of information about circumstances that exist or events that have occurred)

Derivation:

inform (impart knowledge of some fact, state of affairs, or event to)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Formal accusation of a crime

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("information" is a kind of...):

accusal; accusation (a formal charge of wrongdoing brought against a person; the act of imputing blame or guilt)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

data; information

Context example:

statistical data

Hypernyms ("information" is a kind of...):

accumulation; aggregation; assemblage; collection (several things grouped together or considered as a whole)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "information"):

accounting data (all the data (ledgers and journals and spreadsheets) that support a financial statement; can be hard copy or machine readable)

metadata (data about data)

raw data (unanalyzed data; data not yet subjected to analysis)

Derivation:

inform (impart knowledge of some fact, state of affairs, or event to)

Sense 5

Meaning:

(communication theory) a numerical measure of the uncertainty of an outcome

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

entropy; information; selective information

Context example:

the signal contained thousands of bits of information

Hypernyms ("information" is a kind of...):

information measure (a system of measurement of information based on the probabilities of the events that convey information)

Domain category:

communication theory; communications (the discipline that studies the principles of transmiting information and the methods by which it is delivered (as print or radio or television etc.))

 Context examples 

Magnetism from the arrangement of electron spins is used in most memory devices, and is important for developing new technologies such as spintronics, which could transform the way in which computers process information.

(‘Magnetic graphene’ switches between insulator and conductor, University of Cambridge)

She shook her head, she "was sorry she could give me no information," and the white door closed, quite gently and civilly: but it shut me out.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A new study provides insight into how the small brains of mantis shrimp — fierce predators with keen vision — may process and integrate visual information with other sensory input.

(How mantis shrimp make sense of the world, National Science Foundation)

Participants provided information on their usual weekly chocolate consumption, with one serving classified as 1 ounce (30 g).

(Eat Chocolate for Steady Heartbea, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Here is some interesting information: Mars meets with Jupiter every two years, but always in a different sign.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

“Now you must really bear with me, because I ask for information. We never know ourselves.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

"This test can provide more information about a wild mushroom beyond physical appearance and characteristics, and detect something we cannot even see—the presence of amanitins," said Bever.

(New Test Identifies Poisonous Mushrooms, Agricultural Research Service)

These variable findings may be because some studies used self-reported dietary information rather than directly measuring omega-3 levels.

(Omega-3s linked with lower risk of fatal heart attacks, NIH)

A person who retrieves and summarizes information.

(Abstractor, NCI Thesaurus)

I know you did; I know it all perfectly, but—Indeed, Mrs Smith, we must not expect to get real information in such a line.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)