| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| percentage |
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| SYLLABICATION: | per·cent·age |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  p r-s n t j |
| NOUN: | 1a. A fraction or ratio with 100 understood as the denominator; for example, 0.98 equals a percentage of 98. b. The result obtained by multiplying a quantity by a percent. 2. A proportion or share in relation to a whole; a part: The hecklers constituted only a small percentage of the audience. 3. An amount, such as an allowance, duty, or commission, that varies in proportion to a larger sum, such as total sales: work for a percentage. 4. Informal Advantage; gain: There is no percentage in work without pay. | | USAGE NOTE: | When preceded by the, percentage takes a singular verb: The percentage of unskilled workers is small. When preceded by a, it takes either a singular or plural verb, depending on the number of the noun in the prepositional phrase that follows: A small percentage of the workers are unskilled. A large percentage of the crop has spoiled.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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