percent

Pluralpercent, percents

1. 1
   after a numberadverb

   For every hundred, used after a numeral to express a proportion out of one hundred.

   Almost sixty percent of voters supported the measure.

   Unemployment in the county fell to 4.2 percent in March.

   UsageNo plural after a number: sixty percent (not incorrect: sixty percents). With of, the verb agrees with the noun: 60 percent of voters are.

   Note

   It is still written both ways, percent and per cent, and both turn up in careful prose; Frank Dikötter's Mao's Great Famine writes "17 per cent."

2. 2
   nouncountable

   One part in every hundred; also an amount or rate expressed as so many parts in a hundred, a percentage.

   A single percent of the national budget funds the program.

   His investment grew by barely a percent over the year.

   UsageTakes a and fractions: a percent, half a percent. With no number, percentage is usual: a large percentage of.

   Note

   Here percent becomes a unit that can be counted and divided, which is how people who set interest rates talk about it. Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money (2008) describes a ceiling "a quarter of a per cent" above what banks could pay.

3. 3
   symbolnouncountable

   The symbol %, used to denote a proportion out of one hundred.

   The report omitted the percent beside several key figures.

   In the formula, place a percent immediately after the value.

   UsageOften called the percent sign.

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