Definition of quintile
: any of the four values that divide the items of a frequency distribution into five classes with each containing one fifth of the total population; also : any one of the five classes
From the M-W Editors
Did You Know?
Americans love statistics about themselves, whether they inform us about our income, ice-cream consumption, or trash production. And any such rating can be divided into fifths, or quintiles. The fifth or lowest quintile would include the 20 percent of the population who make the least money or eat the least ice cream or generate the least trash, and the first quintile would include the 20 percent who make, eat, or generate the most.
Origin and Etymology of quintile
Latin quintus + English 2-ile
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