Final answer:
A more formal name for a table is 'relation' (option D), which is used in relational database management systems. Each table or relation consists of records (rows) and fields (columns), whereas metadata refers to data that describes other data.
Step-by-step explanation:
A more formal name for a table is relation. In the context of databases, a table is a structured arrangement of data, made up of rows and columns. Each row in a table represents a record, which is a single data item, and each column, known as a field, represents a specific attribute of that data. The term metadata refers to data about other data, such as the schema definition, but doesn't represent the actual data itself. Therefore, the correct answer to the question is:
D) relation.
In database terminology, a relation is a set of tuples having the same attributes. A tuple in a relational database is essentially a row within a table. It's important to grasp this terminology to understand relational database management systems (RDBMS), which are fundamental to organizing and managing large amounts of data.