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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of percentage
Explanation
A percentage is a portion of a whole expressed as a number between 0 and 100 rather than as a fraction. All of something is 100 percent, half of it is fifty percent, none of something is zero percent. To determine a percentage, you divide the portion of the whole by the whole itself and multiply by 100. So if you just ate two pieces of an eight-piece pie, and you want to know what percentage of the pie you consumed, you'd first divide 2 by 8 which equals .25. Then multiply .25 times 100 and get 25 percent. A percentage can also mean a portion of something but only when it has to do with numbers. When you buy furniture, the salesman gets a percentage of what you spend.
Vocabulary lists containing percentage
The SAT: Language of the Test, List 3
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Perfect Ten: Dec, Cent, Mille
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The New SAT: The Language of the Test
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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.
See Examples For:
Tesla shares fell 14.5% on Thursday, marking the stock’s biggest one-day percentage decline since March 10, 2025, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
The percentage of civil servants in senior roles outside of London stands at 13.5% compared with 34.7% in London.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
Snacks and baked goods posted some of the largest percentage jumps, according to Theme Park IQ, another website examining park trends.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
The ECB in June became the first major central bank to raise rates after the near total closure of the strait, putting rates up a quarter of a percentage point to 2.25 percent.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
A Presidential candidate in 1980 was reported to have asked his press entourage how to convert % to a percentage, explaining that the homework problem was assigned to his son.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
Asked for comment on the book, an MIT spokesman sent a statement pointing out that high percentages of the school’s Jews now say they’re happy and feel safe at the institute.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
The state also has goals, including some that have been in place since 2012, that set declining limits on smog-causing pollutants and required automakers to sell increasing percentages of electric and hybrid vehicles through 2025.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026
"We don't look at percentages, we don't actually believe that is the right metric," Deborah Jevans, the chair of the All England Club, told BBC Sport earlier this month.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
The investments covered in the ledger were tiny percentages of SpaceX but would have generated windfalls.
From Salon ● Jun. 19, 2026
Search after search about lung transplants and lung-function percentages, new combinations and phrasing but always the same idea.
From "Five Feet Apart" by Rachael Lippincott
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.