Is the word data a singular or plural noun?
This is a good one. Data is a “plural noun but singular or plural in construction” according to Merriam-Webster. Now, this means that data could be treated as plural or singular. Both are part of standard English. However, Merriam-Webster points out that a majority of publishers mandate that data be treated as a plural noun, and therefore the plural usage is more common. If you do a google search for “‘data was'” (include quotes) and then compare it to a search for “‘data were'” you will see that the number of hits are about the same for both. This is usually a good way to identify grammatically acceptable phrases because regardless of what an English teacher tells you, if a good number of people use and are comfortable with a particular phrase, it is acceptable to use it in most settings. Some of the respondents have pointed out that datum is the singular of data. Merriam-Webster and dictionary.com have different takes on the definition of datum and its two plurals (data and datums).
