What are synonyms of the word "metadata"?

Solution 1:

Metadata has no meaningful synonym in software development; it's the abstract term to refer to data that describe the context of another value. The words object, type, attribute, property, aspect, and schema all refer to metadata in some context. The elements of a web page, for example, are collectively referred to as the Document Object Model, or DOM for short. The DOM contains the order, type, reference name, display name, and value of each element in the page. Or, more generally, it's the metadata for a web page.

So I'm thinking what you really want is a more specific term than metadata, rather than a synonym for it.

Solution 2:

I agree with all the answerers that metadata is the more general and useful terms and all other options are more restrictive or context-sensitive.

Other possible (but less general) terms not already proposed, and sometimes found in software, the general idea being that the collection of metadata on an object "x" can allow identification/disambiguation/research of "x" :

• Known facts about "x"
• General facts about "x"
• Information resources on "x"
• Identity card of "x"
• Pedigree of "x"
• Description of "x"

and a dozen more variants.

One can also remark that metadata is a bit barbaric. Didactic close-equivalent words would be

• prologos
• metalogos
• perilogos
• epilogos

with the exact choice depending of the relation between the information and the subject of it. For instance peri is really "about" but in a more concrete way (think perimeter, delimiting the object), than meta, which has more often the meaning of "information of a higher level, of another kind, with precedence or pre-existence".

Solution 3:

I checked various sources and I didn't found anything. I doubt there are synonyms meant as single words, probably there are expressions but I don't know if they are what you're looking for.

EDIT: I checked more and I found "Metacontent" from here.