Which type of data is characterized by categories without a meaningful order?

Nominal data is characterized by categories that do not have a meaningful order or ranking. This type of data is used to classify items into distinct groups, where each category is unique, and the only information conveyed is that the items belong to different groups. For example, if you were categorizing fruits into types like apples, bananas, and oranges, there is no inherent ranking among these categories; they are simply different types of fruit.

In contrast, ordinal data involves categories that do have a meaningful order but where the distances between the categories are not defined or cannot be measured reliably. Interval data includes numerical values where the distances between points are meaningful, but does not have a true zero point. Ratio data involves numerical values with both a defined order and equal intervals, as well as a true zero point, allowing for the comparison of absolute magnitudes.

Thus, the emphasis on the lack of meaningful ordering in nominal data makes it the correct answer to this question.