percent
percent Lexical Profile
percent Game Scores & Validity
• noun
One part in every hundred, or a specified number of parts out of a hundred (used following a number to express a proportion or rate).
"Roughly seventy percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water."
• adverb
By a specified amount or rate in or for every hundred.
"Enrollment at the community college increased ten percent over the past academic year."
• adjective
Reckoned on the basis of a whole divided into one hundred parts; designating a specified rate or proportion per hundred.
"The municipal government issued a series of four-percent bonds to fund the infrastructure project."
Word Nuance & Usage
While 'percent' is nearly always preceded by a specific number (e.g., 'fifty percent'), 'percentage' is used without a numeral to refer to a general proportion (e.g., 'a large percentage'). In British English, it is frequently spelled as two words, 'per cent'.
• Rhymes for percent
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the mid-16th century from the Italian phrase 'per cento', or pseudo-Latin 'per centum', literally meaning 'by the hundred'.