Metadata is loosely defined as data about data. Metadata is a concept that applies mainly to electronically archived or presented data and is used to describe the a) definition, b) structure and c) administration of data files with all contents in context to ease the use of the captured and archived data for further use। For example, a web page may include metadata specifying what language it's written in, what tools were used to create it, where to go for more on the subject and so on.

Metadata definition

Metadata is defined as data providing information about one or more other pieces of data, such as:

• means of creation of the data,
• purpose of the data,
• time and date of creation,
• creator or author of data,
• placement on a computer network where the data was created,
• standards used

For example, a digital image may include metadata that describes how large the picture is, the color depth, the image resolution, when the image was created, and other data. A text document's metadata may contain information about how long the document is, who the author is, when the document was written, and a short summary of the document.

Metadata is data. As such, metadata can be stored and managed in a database, often called a registry or repository. However, it is impossible to identify metadata just by looking at it because a user would not know when data is metadata or just data.