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View synonyms for information

information

[ in-fer-mey-shuhn ]

noun

  1. knowledge communicated or received concerning a particular fact or circumstance; news:

    information concerning a crime.

    Synonyms: advice, intelligence, data

  2. knowledge gained through study, communication, research, instruction, etc.; factual data:

    His wealth of general information is amazing.

  3. the act or fact of informing.
  4. an office, station, service, or employee whose function is to provide information to the public:

    The ticket seller said to ask information for a timetable.

  5. Law.
    1. an official criminal charge presented, usually by the prosecuting officers of the state, without the interposition of a grand jury.
    2. a criminal charge, made by a public official under oath before a magistrate, of an offense punishable summarily.
    3. the document containing the depositions of witnesses against one accused of a crime.
  6. (in information theory) an indication of the number of possible choices of messages, expressible as the value of some monotonic function of the number of choices, usually the logarithm to the base 2.
  7. Computers.
    1. important or useful facts obtained as output from a computer by means of processing input data with a program:

      Using the input data, we have come up with some significant new information.

    2. data at any stage of processing (input, output, storage, transmission, etc.).


information

/ ˌɪnfəˈmeɪʃən /

noun

  1. knowledge acquired through experience or study
  2. knowledge of specific and timely events or situations; news
  3. the act of informing or the condition of being informed
    1. an office, agency, etc, providing information
    2. ( as modifier )

      information service

    1. a charge or complaint made before justices of the peace, usually on oath, to institute summary criminal proceedings
    2. a complaint filed on behalf of the Crown, usually by the attorney general
  4. computing
    1. the meaning given to data by the way in which it is interpreted
    2. another word for data
  5. too much information informal.
    too much information I don't want to hear any more


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Derived Forms

  • ˌinforˈmational, adjective

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Other Words From

  • infor·mation·al adjective
  • nonin·for·mation·al adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of information1

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English infformacion, informacyon “instruction, teaching, a forming of the mind,” from Middle French, Old French informacion, information “criminal inquiry,” from Late Latin informātiō “teaching, instruction,” from Latin: “sketch, first draft; idea, conception”; inform 1, -ation

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Idioms and Phrases

see under gold mine .

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Synonym Study

Information, knowledge, wisdom are terms for human acquirements through reading, study, and practical experience. Information applies to facts told, read, or communicated that may be unorganized and even unrelated: to pick up useful information. Knowledge is an organized body of information, or the comprehension and understanding consequent on having acquired and organized a body of facts: a knowledge of chemistry. Wisdom is a knowledge of people, life, and conduct, with the facts so thoroughly assimilated as to have produced sagacity, judgment, and insight: to use wisdom in handling people.

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Example Sentences

Like many trans users, Transartist often gets used as a source of information more than anything else.

The FBI has also been searching its records for any information that could assist the French investigation, a spokesperson added.

The email appears to have been a relatively common attempt to gain personal information from a wide range of unwitting victims.

The new information consisted of Internet protocol addresses that Comey said are “exclusively used” by North Korea.

The United States government might not release that information for years, if ever.

This information was balm to Louis, as it seemed to promise a peaceful termination to so threatening an affair.

Probably his Private Secretary, considering you a new man, will have failed to furnish the necessary information.

Such a refusal would lead to quick enquiry—enquiry to information—information to want of confidence and speedy ruin.

At the sound of Blanche's name he jumped up and took his usual tone; he knew all about his wife, and needed no information.

Taken for guerrillas, every Southern sympathizer was eager to give them all the information possible.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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