information

From Middle English enformacioun, informacioun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman informacioun, enformation, Old French information, from Latin īnfōrmātiō (“formation, conception; education”), from the participle stem of īnformāre (“to inform”). Equivalent to inform +‎ -ation.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌɪn.fəˈmeɪ.ʃn̩/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɪn.fɚˈmeɪ.ʃn̩/

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• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˌɪn.fəˈmæɪ.ʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən
• Hyphenation: in‧for‧ma‧tion

information (usually uncountable, plural informations)

1. Something that provides a definitive characterization or description of the nature and attributes of a specified entity.
   • 2018, Steven Pinker, “Chapter 2: Entro, Evo, Info”, in Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Penguin, →ISBN:

     And now we come to the third keystone, information.⁸ Information may be thought of as a reduction in entropy—as the ingredient that distinguishes an orderly, structured system from the vast set of random, useless ones.⁹ Imagine pages of random characters tapped out by a monkey at a typewriter, or a stretch of white noise from a radio tuned between channels, or a screenful of confetti from a corrupted computer file. Each of these objects can take trillions of different forms, each as boring as the next. But now suppose that the devices are controlled by a signal that arranges the characters or sound waves or pixels into a pattern that correlates with something in the world: the Declaration of Independence, the opening bars of “Hey Jude,” a cat wearing sunglasses. We say that the signal transmits information about the Declaration or the song or the cat.¹⁰

2. Things that are or can be known about a given topic; communicable knowledge of something. [from 14th c.]

   I need some more information about this issue.

   • 1592, Henry IV of France, A Discourse of the Great Overthrow‎^[2], page 2:

     And ſo much yet did this contagion breake foorth to the harme of manie Inhabitants of his Towne, who affected the Vicont, that they which were encountred by the kinges troupes, (information being geuen of their demeanor) they were iudged to be of good prize, and voluntarely paid ranſom.

   • (Can we date this quote?), Wynnard Hooper, “Population”, in The Encyclopædia Britannica […] , Ninth edition, Volume XI, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, page 513, column 2:

     It is usual to obtain by means of a census a good deal of information beyond the bare fact of the number of persons whose existence is, for the purposes of the census, taken cognizance of. Part of this information is obtained for purposes connected with the administration of the state, such as that contained in replies to questions as to the religion, profession, &c., of the individuals numbered.

   • 2021, Donald J. Trump, Executive Order 13971 (Addressing the Threat Posed by Applications and Other Software Developed or Controlled by Chinese Companies)‎^[3]:

     By accessing personal electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers, Chinese connected software applications can access and capture vast swaths of information from users, including sensitive personally identifiable information and private information. This data collection threatens to provide the Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information—which would permit China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, and build dossiers of personal information.

3. The act of informing or imparting knowledge; notification. [from 14th c.]

   For your information, I did this because I wanted to.

   • 1903–1909, “Extracto de una carta (Extract of a letter from the Indies)”, in Emma Helen Blair, James Alexander Robertson, editors, The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898‎^[4], volume 1, pages 297-299:

     At this time a great uneasiness became manifest among the Castilians, and it was rumored that Magallanes was going to deliver them over to the Portuguese; and they resolved to mutiny and seize the ships. Magallanes upon obtaining information of this was sorely grieved. He summoned the guilty ones before him one by one, but they flatly refused to come.

4. (law, countable) A statement of criminal activity brought before a judge or magistrate; in the UK, used to inform a magistrate of an offence and request a warrant; in the US, an accusation brought before a judge without a grand jury indictment. [from 15th c.]
   • 1968, Carl B. Cone, The English Jacobins, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 131:

     On May 21, 1792, the Attorney General filed an information against Paine charging him with seditious libel.

5. (obsolete) The act of informing against someone, passing on incriminating knowledge; accusation. [14th–17th c.]
6. (now rare) The systematic imparting of knowledge; education, training. [from 14th c.]
7. (now rare) The creation of form; the imparting of a given quality or characteristic; forming, animation. [from 17th c.]
8. (computing, formally) The meaning that a human assigns to data by means of the known conventions used in its representation.
9. (Christianity) Divine inspiration. [from 15th c.]
   • 1927 August, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “[Ariel Poems.] Journey of the Magi.”, in Collected Poems 1909–1935, London: Faber & Faber […], published September 1954, →OCLC, page 108:

     But there was no information, and so we continued
     And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon

10. A service provided by telephone which provides listed telephone numbers of a subscriber. [from 20th c.]
12. (information theory) Any unambiguous abstract data, the smallest possible unit being the bit. [from 20th c.]
13. (computing, data management) The output resulting from the systematic collection, manipulation and organization of raw data into a structured, interpretable format. [from late 20th c.]
14. (information technology) Any ordered sequence of symbols (or signals) (that could contain a message). [from late 20th c.]

• The definition of information in the computing context is from an international standard vocabulary which, though formally accepted, is largely ignored by the computing profession.^[1]

English terms starting with “information”

• information on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “information”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• information in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “information”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Borrowed from Latin informatiō, informatiōnis.

information c (singular definite informationen, plural indefinite informationer)

1. (a piece of) information

• kontaktinformation

Inherited from Old French, borrowed from Latin īnfōrmātiōnem.

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.fɔʁ.ma.sjɔ̃/

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information f (plural informations)

1. (countable) piece of information; datum

   Cette information nous est parvenue hier soir.

   This piece of information reached us last night.

2. (plural only) news

   Tous les jours, il regarde la télé le midi pour suivre les informations.

   Every day, he watches TV at noon to catch the news.

3. (uncountable) information

   Théorie de l'information.

   Theory of information

• (piece of information): donnée, nouvelle
• (news): nouvelles
• (information): renseignement

• autoroute de l'information
• lettre d’information
• relevé d'informations
• société de l’information

• Haitian Creole: enfòmasyon

• “information”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

information

1. alternative form of enformacioun

Borrowed from Latin informatiō, informatiōnis.

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information c

1. information

• information in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• information in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• information in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)