information

information [in΄fər mā′shən]

n.

[ME informacioun < OFr information < L informatio, a representation, outline, sketch]

1. an informing or being informed; esp., a telling or being told of something

2. something told; news; intelligence; word

3. knowledge acquired in any manner; facts; data; learning; lore

4. a person or agency answering questions as a service to others

5. in information theory and computer science, a precise measure of the information content of a message, measured in bits and ranging from zero when the entire message is known in advance to some maximum when nothing is known of its content

6. any data that can be stored in and retrieved from a computer

7. Law an accusation, under oath, of a criminal offense, not by indictment of a grand jury, but by a public officer, such as a prosecutor

informational

adj.

SYN.- INFORMATION applies to data that are gathered in any way, as by reading, observation, hearsay, etc. and does not necessarily connote validity [inaccurate information]; KNOWLEDGE applies to any body of facts gathered by study, observation, etc. and to the ideas inferred from these facts, and connotes an understanding of what is known [man's knowledge of the universe ]; LEARNING is knowledge acquired by study, especially in languages, literature, philosophy, etc.; ERUDITION implies profound or abstruse learning beyond the comprehension of most people; WISDOM implies superior judgment and understanding based on broad knowledge