percentage

[per-sen-tij]

noun

1. a rate or proportion per hundred.

2. an allowance, commission, or rate of interest calculated by percent.

3. a proportion in general.

   Only a small percentage of the class will graduate with honors.

4. gain; benefit; profit; advantage.

percentage

/ pəˈsɛntɪdʒ /

noun

1. proportion or rate per hundred parts

2. commerce the interest, tax, commission, or allowance on a hundred items

3. any proportion in relation to the whole

4. informal,  profit or advantage

Confusables Note

See percent.

Other Word Forms

• percentaged adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of percentage¹

First recorded in 1780–90; percent + -age

Example Sentences

A small percentage of installations - 6% for external and 2% of internal insulation - posed an "immediate health and safety risk" from faults such as exposed live electrical cabling or blocked boiler ventilation, it said.

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That means a larger percentage of their shares have been sold short—a bet that they will fall—than is normal.

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And in his first season starting for the Seahawks, he took them to the playoffs and led the NFL in completion percentage.

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Economists now expect them to add 0.5 percentage point to year-over-year inflation as measured by the personal-consumption expenditures price index in the fourth quarter, down from 1 percentage point in April’s survey.

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A much higher percentage of Haaland's touches come in the penalty area too.

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Related Words

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

When To Use

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.