one-percenter

one-percenter noun: a member of the top one percent of a population by wealth, ability, etc. (same as the ninety-ninth percentile), especially in a society with high wealth inequality.

Noun

one-percenter (plural one-percenters)

A member of the top one percent of a population by wealth, ability, etc. (same as the ninety-ninth percentile), especially in a society with high wealth inequality.
- An upper one-percenter in the income and wealth distributions, Rubin commuted by private jet between the tony Jefferson Hotel in Washington and his Park home in New York.2000, E. Ray Canterbery, Wall Street Capitalism: The Theory of the Bondholding Class, page 138
- When critics pointer out that the bulk of his tax cut went to the wealthiest one percent of American […], after Bush got finished spinning, it's amazing how many Americans ended up feeling sorry for those poor, deprived one percenters.2002, Bill Press, Spin This!: All the Ways We Don't Tell the Truth, page 17
Antonyms:

99 percent
(idiomatic) An esoteric joke which is unlikely to be appreciated by a general audience.
(idiomatic) An individual who seeks recognition for an idea without contributing the substantial effort required to realize or implement it.
(idiomatic, informal) An outlaw biker, such as a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle club.
- The patch holders themselves recognize that within the framework of the club there exists a radical faction - "the heavies" or "one percenters".1991, Daniel R. Wolf, The Rebels: A Brotherhood of Outlaw Bikers, page 272
- It was Sonny's idea to ally the various clubs under a diamond-shaped "one-percenter" patch. He took it a step further by becoming the first Hells Angel to have the famous "one-percenter" drawn on his arm.2002, Chuck Zito, Street Justice, page 106

Examples of one-percenter in a sentence

"But a few survive, those with the right genetic trait, the one-percenters that will carry on and reproduce that trait."2004, George Black, The Trout Pool Paradox: The American Lives of Three Rivers, page 204:
[Y]ou've been one of the "one-percenters." You've always been in that rarefied top one percent of the people doing whatever you were doing at any given moment in your life.2006, David Weber, In Fury Born:
There is, without a doubt, the "one-percenter" subculture consisting of individuals who are social renegades in the criminal sense.2004, Karen Larsen, Breaking the Limit: One Woman's Motorcycle Journey Through North America, page 271:

Antonyms of one-percenter

99 percent

Forms of one-percenter

plural	one-percenters
alternative form	1-percenter
alternative form	one percenter

Origin of one-percenter

From one percent + -er. After Thomas Edison, who wrote: "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." The motorcycling sense comes from a supposed statement made by the American Motorcycle Association in 1948 that 99% of motorcyclists are decent people enjoying a clean sport, and it is only 1% who are antisocial.

Questions about one-percenter

What does one-percenter mean?: One-percenter means a member of the top one percent of a population by wealth, ability, etc. (same as the ninety-ninth percentile), especially in a society with high wealth inequality.
How do you use one-percenter in a sentence?: "But a few survive, those with the right genetic trait, the one-percenters that will carry on and reproduce that trait."
What part of speech is one-percenter?: One-percenter is a noun.
What is the plural of one-percenter?: The plural of one-percenter is one-percenters.

Words near one-percenter in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: one-percenter (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “one-percenter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/one-percenter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.