noun

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

Etymology: ME informacioun < OFr information < L informatio, a representation, outline, sketch