Data pertaining to an object which is stored, created, manipulated, controlled, and made available to users for the purpose of describing, finding and controlling the object.

Metadata can be recognized, interpreted, manipulated by the management system.

Metadata includes identifiers and attributes associated with objects, for example, a drawing number and the title is metadata about a drawing.

This definition differs from that used by information systems professionals as a definition of a databases underlying schema.

See also ATTRIBUTE, DATA, OBJECTS, and OBJECT DATA.