percent

Or per cent

[per-sent]

noun

1. Also called per centum. one one-hundredth part; 1/100.

2. percentage.

3. British.,  stocks, bonds, etc., that bear an indicated rate of interest.

adjective

1. figured or expressed on the basis of a rate or proportion per hundred (used in combination with a number in expressing rates of interest, proportions, etc.): %

   to get three percent interest.

percent

1. One part in a hundred. For example, 62 percent (also written 62%) means 62 parts out of 100.

percent

1. A fraction expressed as a number of hundredths. Twelve percent of a quantity, for example, is twelve one-hundredths of it. Twelve percent may also be written 12%.

Confusables Note

In the senses “rate or proportion per hundred” and “proportion in general” percent and percentage are frequently interchangeable. With a preceding number, only percent occurs ( a 16 percent decline ); with no preceding number, either occurs, but percentage is much more common: a certain percentage (or percent ) of the land.

Other Word Forms

• percental adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of percent¹

First recorded in 1560–70; short for Medieval Latin per centum “by the hundred”; per, cent

Example Sentences

The figure rises to 22 percent by the time they reach the age of 10 or 11, according to the National Child Measurement Programme.

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On Tuesday, Commerce Department figures showed that retail sales in September were up 4.3 percent from a year ago.

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“At the same time, the bear-market memory bank gauges of an ever-increasing percent of the population are now bouncing off empty: What could go wrong?”

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“Every report we got was that it did really well, it was popular, and the retention rate from the previous show that kids were watching was 90-something percent.”

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Italy is the European country that uses the most artificial snow, with over 90 percent of Italy's ski slopes using artificial snowmaking systems, according to an April report from Italian environmental group Legambiente.

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Related Words

• bonus 
• chunk 
• fee 
• interest 
• proportion 
• rate 
• ratio 
• royalty