Revised as of
16 Dec 2022
This word confusion, percent vs percentage vs percentile, revolves around 100 and comes down to which one gets the number. The percent is always preceded by a number whereas the percentage never uses a number unless it couples up with that numbered percent. And these two are always a proportion of that whole hundred.
Percentile, on the other hand, is about the range within that 100 based on values.
So you can be in the top 95th percentile, doing better than 95 percent of the others. In other words, you’re in a small percentage of those who did well.
I know, convoluted.
Formatting: Articles and the Percentage
Depending upon the article used, percentage will take either a singular or a plural verb.
| the | a |
|---|---|
| Uses singular | Uses singular OR plural, depending upon whether the noun is singular or plural |
| The percentage of women CEOs is small. | A small percentage of the coffee crop was destroyed.
A percentage of the babies are well within the expected percentile of growth. |
There are more formatting rules in the post on “Numerals”, which you should peek in at if you’re working with percents, percentages, and/or percentiles. There’s also the formatting tip “Percent“.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Percent | Percentage | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
|
45%, 45⁄100, 0.45%, Forty-five percent I call it Variations on a Percent. |
World Population Percentages by Wikideas1 is under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
Global Changes in Real Income by Income Percentile, 2005, was created by Farcaster from a chart by Branko Milanovic is under the CC BY 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
| Part of Grammar: | ||
| Adjective; Adverb; Noun
Plural for the noun: percents, A.k.a., per cent [British] |
Noun
Plural: percentages |
Adjective; Noun
Plural for the noun: percentiles |
| Adjective: Figured or expressed on the basis of a rate or proportion per hundred (used in combination with a number in expressing rates of interest, proportions, etc.) Adverb: Noun:
[British] Stocks, bonds, etc., that bear an indicated rate of interest |
[Mathematics] A rate, number, or amount in each hundred
Gain
|
Adjective: Of or relating to a percentile or a division of a distribution by percentiles Noun:
A measure used in statistics indicating the value below which a given percentage of observations in a group of observations fall |
| Examples: | ||
| Adjective: What do we have to do to get three percent interest? They’re offering a 2.25 percent checking account. There was a 20 percent increase in orders. The manufacturer hopes to achieve a 10 percent decrease in carbon dioxide emissions. Adverb: The staff rejected a 1.8 percent increase. The defendant was found 40 percent at fault. I agreed with their suggestions one hundred percent. Noun: It’s the percent of drug users who are infected. “Thirty-six percent were in favor and 38 percent were opposed” (Gillespie). Members of Congress are usually re-elected at the rate of 95 percent. The number of women CEOs of major corporations is only seven percent. If I were to tell you that 10% of women eat ice cream, that means that 10 out of every 100 women eat ice cream. |
Damn, interest rates rose by 1.75 percentage points.
Just play the percentages. Look, it’s a percentage game. The percentage of cesareans at the hospital was three percent higher than the national average. Only a small percentage of black Americans have Caribbean roots. I work on percentage. You explain to me the percentage in looking like a hoodlum. Only a small percentage of any inner-city school will graduate. |
Adjective: Sometimes it’s easier to use a percentile calculator. If you’re in the 25 percentile rank, then 25% of test takers are below your score. We need to determine the 25–75 percentile range. Noun: Ninety percent of the values lie at or below the ninetieth percentile, ten percent above it. A test score that is higher than 95 percent of the other scores is in the 95th percentile. “These differentials, he writes “places the average black at roughly the 16th percentile of the white IQ distribution” (Bouie). “The new measure is a relative measure, pegged to (approximately) how much the 33rd percentile is spending on various things” (McArdle). “Really well, actually — in the 97th percentile on reading comprehension and the 87th in math” (Summers). |
| Derivatives: | ||
| Adjective: percental Combined Form: -percenter Noun: per cent., per centum Symbol: % |
Abbreviation: pc, pct, pct. Adjective: percentaged Noun: percentage point |
Noun: centile |
| History of the Word: | ||
| Mid-16th century from per + cent, perhaps as an abbreviation of pseudo-Latin per centum. | First recorded in 1780–90, as percent + -age. | 1885, coined by English scientist Francis Galton (1822-1911) from percent + -ile. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Percent vs Percentage vs Percentile
Apple Dictionary.com
Bouie, Jamelle. “Immigrants’ IQ Lower, Wrote Coathor of Heritage Foundation Report.” The Daily Beast,. 9 May 2013 Web. 1 April 2018. <https://www.thedailybeast.com/immigrants-iq-lower-wrote-coathor-of-heritage-foundation-report?source=dictionary>.
Dictionary.com: percent, percentage, percentile
The Free Dictionary: percent
Gillespie, Nick. “How the PC Police Threaten Free Speech.” The Daily Beast. 9 Jan 2015. Web. 1 April 2018. <https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-pc-police-threaten-free-speech?source=dictionary>.
McArdle. “The Poor We Shall Always Have With Us.” The Daily Beast. 16 Nov 2012 Web. 1 April 2018. <https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-poor-we-shall-always-have-with-us?source=dictionary>.
Merriam-Webster: percent
Proofread NOW: percentage
Summers, Nick. “The Great College Road Trip.” The Daily Beast. 8 April 2011 Web. 1 April 2018. <https://www.thedailybeast.com/campus-visits-the-great-college-road-trip?source=dictionary>.
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Slice of Banoffee Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream and Strawberries by Sarah (originally posted to Flickr as Banoffee) is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.
