percent

adverb

per·cent | \ pər-ˈsent

Definition of percent

(Entry 1 of 3)

: in the hundred : of each hundred

percent

noun

plural percent or percents

Definition of percent (Entry 2 of 3)

1 plural percent

a : one part in a hundred

b : percentage a large percent of their income

2 percents plural, British : securities bearing a specified rate of interest

percent

adjective

Definition of percent (Entry 3 of 3)

1 : reckoned on the basis of a whole divided into 100 parts

2 : paying interest at a specified percent

Examples of percent in a Sentence

Noun

The value has increased half a percent.

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

That’s considerably higher than in the state as a whole, where the figures are 9 and 14 percent, respectively. — Nina Shapiro, The Seattle Times, "Fear, resentment — and more demand for vaccines as one Washington county grapples with measles outbreak," 1 Apr. 2019 Our efforts, combined with those of countless other activists, paid off: In the 2018 midterms, early and absentee voting by 18- to 29-year-olds surged some 700 percent in Tennessee, 500 percent in Texas, and 200 percent in Florida. — Allie Holloway, Harper's BAZAAR, "Sarah Chadwick, Laura Dern, & Diane Kruger Fight for Gun Violence Prevention," 20 Feb. 2019 The reliability of the interrogation is almost one hundred percent. — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "Journal Claims Russian Troops Have Psychic Powers," 4 Apr. 2019 Not all providers offer this, but most do, Kaye says, adding that the discount is often 10 to 20 percent. — Mattie Quinn, SELF, "8 Ways to Negotiate and Pay Off Expensive Medical Bills," 15 Feb. 2019 The 2017 and 2018 reports show that the median speeds provided by cable and fiber networks are still generally at least 100 percent of their advertised speeds. — Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica, "Ajit Pai buries 2-year-old speed test data in appendix of 762-page report," 5 Dec. 2018 All three indexes are up more than 4.2 percent for the week, the first time since Nov. 1 that the market benchmarks climbed in three consecutive sessions. — Recode Staff, Recode, "Recode Daily: ‘I don’t think Amazon understands how close they are to blowing themselves up’," 29 Nov. 2018 As many as five million have genomes that are at least 1 percent Native American in origin. — James Freeman, WSJ, "Did Elizabeth Warren Just Kill Identity Politics?," 15 Oct. 2018 Latvia's population of some 2 million is 25 percent Lutheran, 19 percent Russian Orthodox and only about 16 percent Catholic. — Nicole Winfield And Maria Grazia Murru, Fox News, "Pope begins Baltics pilgrimage as Russia threat looms large," 22 Sep. 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective

There is a 20 or so percent chance of isolated showers but nothing that will be a washout. — Doug Phillips, Sun-Sentinel.com, "Summer already? Feels like it," 27 Apr. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'percent.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.