fiche

Fiche is a French noun meaning a small card, sheet, or slip that carries information. In broad use, a fiche is a discrete record used to organize data about a person, object, or topic. In English, the word is not common as a general term; it survives in specialized contexts such as microfiche, a sheet of microfilm used for archiving, and in Anglophone translations of French technical terms (fiche technique = data sheet, fiches descriptives = fact sheets).

In French, many compound nouns incorporate fiche: fiche d'identité (identity card), fiche de paie (pay slip), fiche signalétique (biographical data sheet), fiche technique (technical data sheet), fiche produit (product sheet), fiche client (customer file). Fiches are used in administration, education, business, and libraries to store concise, structured information.

In libraries and archives, fiche historically referred to catalog cards and microfiche; a microfiche is a microform for storing large numbers of pages on small film, viewed with a reader. The term also survives in translations of French terms, where fiche technique is rendered as data sheet or spec sheet, depending on the context.

Current usage in English is limited outside specialized fields; in everyday French, fiche remains a common term for various forms and records. The concept predates digital databases, and today it often coexists with electronic fiches or digital records.