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"Information on something", "information of something", "information about something" — these three usages all sound having the same meaning for me. Are there any differences?

3 Answers 3

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"On" has the meaning of 'covering' here, as in :

Dealing with the subject of, about, or concerning something.

"Information on something" would be information that is really in-depth, and quite into details. i.e. A study on history, or A book on biomedicine.

"information about something" has the implication that it is information that is a kind of summary about a subject i.e. A brochure will contain "information about something", but you can't really say "A brochure on mechanics." You would use "A brochure about mechanics."

"information of something" used in this way basically means the same as "information about something", but I would avoid using "information of something" for the reason that it could be misunderstood to mean "Information belonging to something".

It would be much better to use "information about something" in this case.

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  • 1
    "Information of" is not generally used in the same way as "information about". Putting it into Google gets results such as "the personal information of hundreds of people was stolen" (i.e. possessive, as you say), as well as lots of text clearly written by non-native speakers.
    – psmears
    Jul 5, 2011 at 8:23
  • "Information on something" would be information that is really in-depth - I don't think the one reference you cite really supports the idea that "information on" necessary means in-depth information, though it can mean that.
    – nnnnnn
    Nov 21, 2020 at 7:58
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It might be a regional thing. I grew up in New Zealand, and for me "information on something" and "information about something" mean the same thing. "information of" means "information belonging to", although not in the strict legal sense of belonging. psmears gives a good example.

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According to my early editorial training in professional textbook publishing (going back to the late 1970s-early 1980s), "information about" is always preferable to "information on."

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  • Would you say... "The database contains data/information about/on/of one hundred people" ?
    – skan
    May 27, 2016 at 10:43

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