data or datum

There are several words with Latin or Greek roots whose plural forms ending in A are constantly mistaken for singular ones. See, for instance, and . “Datum” is so rare now in English that people may assume “data” has no singular form. Many American usage communities, however, use “data” as a singular and some have even gone so far as to invent “datums” as a new plural. This is a case where you need to know the patterns of your context. An engineer or scientist used to writing “the data is” may well find that the editors of a journal or publishing house insist on changing this phrase to “the data are.” Usage is so evenly split in this case that there is no automatic way of determining which is right; but writers addressing an international audience of nonspecialists would probably be safer treating “data” as plural.

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• swam vs swum
• all for not vs all for naught
• woman vs women
• epic vs epoch
• benefactor vs beneficiary
• writting vs writing
• standalone vs stand-alone
• basicly vs basically
• notate vs note
• blindsighted vs blindsided

Definitions

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• n  a collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn
  statistical data
• n  an item of factual information derived from measurement or research

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• n  an item of factual information derived from measurement or research

News & Articles

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• RagingWire data firm to expand in Virginia
  RagingWire Data Centers of Sacramento said Wednesday it's investing $150 million to expand its
  June 13, 2013 - The Sacramento Bee
• New Data from Zao.com Shows Rewarding Trusted Non-Employees Increases Referral Hires by 41 Percent
  Internal data from Zao.com, a social employee referral management platform, indicates a boost in hiring rates when trusted non-employees are rewarded for referrals. (PRWeb June 13, 2013) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/6/prweb10823957.htm
  June 13, 2013 - PRWeb
• Global Data Center Services Provider CyrusOne Selected by Hamilton/Clermont Cooperative Association to House Data
  DALLAS -- Global data center services provider CyrusOne announced today that the Hamilton/Clermont Cooperative Association (HCCA), which provides data and Internet services for approximately 100 public ...
  June 13, 2013 - GlobeNewswire via Yahoo! Finance

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• An App That Uses Geometry To Help You Break Creative Blocks
  First–year undergraduate architect and design majors know the scenario very well. Given a range of flat polygons of different sizes––a circle and triangle or a rhombus and trapezoid––the young student has to find a way to combine them. Each set must illustrate a different visual category, say rhythm or datum, and must do so in a seamless manner. Of course, these early efforts are rarely graceful ...
  Oct. 2, 2013 - Fast Company Magazine
• Tiny Datum receives key quality certification
  SANTA ROSA -- Datum Technologies passed another milestone last week. After a year of careful documentation and other qualifying measures the precision machine shop received its AS9100C quality-control certification for ... Read more »
  June 10, 2013 - North Bay Business Journal