DATUM • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Datum

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/dˈætəm/ /dˈeɪtəm/ Listen

noun

Datum n. (pl. data)

Something given or admitted; a fact or principle granted; that upon which an inference or an argument is based; used chiefly in the plural. "Any writer, therefore, who... furnishes us with data sufficient to determine the time in which he wrote."

A single piece of information; a fact; especially a piece of information obtained by observation or experiment; used mostly in the plural.

pl. (Math.) The quantities or relations which are assumed to be given in any problem.

(Surveying) A point, line, or level surface used as a reference in measuring elevations.

Datum line (Surv.), the horizontal or base line, from which the heights of points are reckoned or measured, as in the plan of a railway, etc.

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Etymology of 'Datum'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Datum" Quotes from Famous Books

... Different stages in the process of erosion can be distinguished and to some extent correlated with the time scale of the rocks in other regions. One such stage is particularly manifest in the Catoctin Belt and furnishes the datum by which to place other stages. It is also best adapted for study, because it is connected directly with the usual time scale by its associated deposits. This stage is the Tertiary baselevel, and the deposit is the Lafayette formation, a deposit of coarse gravel ...

— History and Comprehensive Description of Loudoun County, Virginia • James W. Head

... the conditions of the body; but of course we must not imagine that we can make this embodiment in any way conceivable to us. It is so—that is all that we can say, just as in an earlier consideration of the embodiment and multiplication of the eternal Logos we had to accept this as a datum, without being able to come any nearer to the fact by conceptions, or even by mere analogies. This is where the task of the psychologist begins. Grant the self-consciousness of the individual, although still very obscure; grant the sentient perception; everything ...

— The Silesian Horseherd - Questions of the Hour • Friedrich Max Mueller

... Lacedaemonem esse honestissimum domicilium senectutis; nusquam enim tantum tribuitur aetati, nusquam est senectus honoratior. Quin etiam memoriae proditum est, cum Athenis ludis quidam in theatrum grandis natu venisset, magno consessu locum nusquam ei datum a suis civibus, cum autem ad Lacedaemonios accessisset, qui, legati cum essent certo in loco considerant, consurrexisse omnes illi dicuntur et senem sessum recepisse; 64 quibus cum a cuncto consessu plausus esset ...

— Cato Maior de Senectute • Marcus Tullius Cicero

... harbour of Port Jackson was now undertaken, in order to compute the number of canoes, and inhabitants, which it might contain: sixty-seven canoes, and 147 people were counted. No estimate, however, of even tolerable accuracy, can be drawn from so imperfect a datum; though it was perhaps the best in our power ...

— A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson • Watkin Tench

... instead in channels in which it would become a benefit to mankind. This is one great reason why the communal ownership of land and capital would be likely to have a beneficial effect upon human nature, for human nature, as it exists in adult men and women, is by no means a fixed datum, but a product of circumstances, education and opportunity operating upon a highly ...

— Proposed Roads To Freedom • Bertrand Russell

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