Metadata
Metadata is data that describes other data. The term can be used for any kind of data or information that describes data of any kind in any media. Metadata can describe attributes such as the context, quality, age, condition, characteristics, and ownership of an individual datum or a collection of data. In the case of a PLM system, the primary type of data is metadata: date of file or document creation, last-modified date, whether the file is currently checked out, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadata