These words all denote various types of acquired or derived knowledge.

News is knowledge of recent events or developments of interest to the public at large, especially as reported in newspaper or in a radio or television broadcast. News may also be the report or broadcast itself.

• The news from Italy is that spring floods have severely damaged the crops; Each night after dinner we like to listen to the news .

News may also be something of which one did not previously know, or recent doings of which one hasn’t heard.

• What you have just told us about the company being in financial trouble is news to me; Please write and tell me all the news about yourself.

Information is the most general term and is applied to any knowledge acquired from observation, from reading or study, or from talking with others. Although such knowledge is often accepted as valid, it may not necessarily be true or accurate.

• The old lady gathers information about her neighbours by spying on them through the window curtains; A hysterical person at the scene of an accident is a poor source of information as to what happened.

Information is also timely or specific knowledge about an event or subject of interest: a photographic journal containing not only technical articles and news of club activities but also information on the latest cameras and equipment; Before leading his men into combat, the lieutenant called headquarters for information as to the enemy’s position.

Facts are pieces of information that are known by observation or proof to be true or real.

• Research scientists must work with facts ; A witness in a murder trial is assumed to know the facts in the case.

Data (actually the plural of "datum," a Latin form, but often mistakenly used in the singular) is a formal word for a large body of facts or figures which have been gathered systematically and from which conclusions may be drawn. The amassing of data is usually for scientific and statistical purposes, and the information obtained is often fed into a computer for rapid processing.

Intelligence is often a high-flown and literary term for information or news that is communicated by or received from another: Last week we received intelligence of his whereabouts from the consul in Madrid. In a restricted sense, intelligence is the collecting of secret information about an enemy or a suspected person or organization, as by political police, a government agency, or military authorities: an intelligence bureau; an officer in intelligence . The term applies also to the information or facts so collected as well as to the staff of persons occupied with this process: Army intelligence ; British intelligence .