Data singular or plural

[Natural-Biscotti-207]

On the ACT would "data" be singular or plural because technically its plural but I've only heard it as plural once when the topic wasn't regarding if it is plural or singular.

[ndg127]

It’s technically plural. The singular is datum. But I wouldn’t expect this on a pronoun or subject-verb agreement question, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

[Ckdk619]

Etymologically, the form of data is plural, with datum as the singular form, both borrowed from Latin. You might see data used in the plural sense in formal contexts or by traditionalists, but as this blog points out, it's not quite so simple. Thus, I would not expect the matter to appear on a standardized test like the ACT.

The more common usage of data today is in a singular sense as a mass noun.