percentage - per cent

When you express an amount as a percentage of a whole, you say how many parts the amount would have if the whole had 100 equal parts. You write a percentage as a number followed by per cent or by the symbol %. So, for example, if there are 1000 people living in a village and 250 of them are children, you say that 25 per cent or 25% of the people in the village are children.

What is the of nitrogen in air?

He won 28.3 per cent of the vote.

Remember that 90 of most food is water.

You also use percentage to show approximately how large or small an amount is as a proportion of a whole. For example, you can say that an amount is a large percentage or a small percentage of the whole.

The illness affects only of babies.

When percentage is used like this in front of the plural form of a noun, you use a plural form of a verb after it.

A large percentage of the students do not speak English at home.

When percentage is used in front of a singular form or an uncountable noun, you use a singular form of a verb after it.

Only a small percentage of the money given to charity.

A high percentage of their income was spent on rent.