percentage
Americannoun
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a rate or proportion per hundred.
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an allowance, commission, or rate of interest calculated by percent.
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a proportion in general.
Only a small percentage of the class will graduate with honors.
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gain; benefit; profit; advantage.
noun
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proportion or rate per hundred parts
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commerce the interest, tax, commission, or allowance on a hundred items
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any proportion in relation to the whole
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informal profit or advantage
Usage
What is a percentage? Percentage is a rate or proportion per hundred, as in This graph shows the percentage of homes that have a microwave.Percentage is also used more generally to mean any proportion, as in Studies have shown that a large percentage of people love cute animals.A percent is one one-hundredth (1/100) of something. Percentage refers to the rate or proportion of that one hundred. Usually, you will see the word percentage used in math equations or statistics or when someone is measuring the increase and decrease in rates.Informally, percentage can mean a gain or advantage, as in There is no percentage to be gained from lying to the sheriff.Generally, percentage and percent can be used interchangeably when referring to vague proportions. However, the word percentage never follows an exact number. In this case, only percent can be used in The number of pet owners increased by 10 percent.A percentile is any of the possible 100 equal parts a range of values can be divided into. A given percentile means that the percentage of all possible outcomes is lower or lesser than the given percentile. For example, if you score in the 92nd percentile of an exam, you scored higher than 92 percent of all other people who took the exam.Example: After careful measuring, the percentage of people who hated pineapple on pizza was found to be significantly higher than first thought.
Commonly Confused
See percent.
Other Word Forms
- percentaged adjective
Etymology
Origin of percentage
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
While those percentages may seem trivial, short-run diesel price inelasticity and refinery constraints imply materially higher regional prices, especially if substitutes are costly or slow to arrive.
From MarketWatch
While those percentages may seem trivial, short-run diesel price inelasticity and refinery constraints imply materially higher regional prices, especially if substitutes are costly or slow to arrive.
From MarketWatch
Knecht will get “consistent” playing time over the next few weeks, Redick said, but he won’t be solely judged on his shooting percentage while he tries to stick in the lineup.
From Los Angeles Times
He was exemplary on the doubles - double 20, in particular - as well, with a checkout percentage of 58.8% to ensure there was no way back for Searle.
From BBC
Western Digital reckons that data generation will triple over the next few years, and the percentage of data that companies hang on to will rise from low- to mid-single digits.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
