Word.ws English Dictionary

per cent

per cent is the alternative form of percent.

Meaning of percent

Noun

percent (plural percent or percents)

  1. A percentage, a proportion (especially per hundred).
    • only a small percent attain the top ranks
  2. One part per hundred; one percent, hundredth.
    • And from 1966, under Regulation Q, there was a ceiling of 5.5 per cent on their deposit rates, a quarter of a per cent more than banks were allowed to pay.2008, Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money, Penguin, page 254
  3. The percent sign, %.
  4. An annuity or security with a certain fixed and guaranteed annual percentage rate of return or percentage dividend.
    • […]Several stocks in the Three Per Cents and Three Per Cents Reduced to be transferred into the name and to the credit of the prosecutor, without any authority to him (the traverser) to sell, negotiate, transfer or pledge the said 9000l. Three-and-a-Quarter per Cent. Annuities.1848, Edward W. Cox, Esq., of the Middle Temple, Barrister at Law, editor, Reports of Cases in Criminal Law Argued and Determined in All the Courts of England and Ireland: Volume II 1868 to 1848...

See all 6 meanings of percent

Forms of per cent

pluralper cent
alternative formper. cent
alternative formper cent.

Origin of per cent

From Latin per centum.

Questions about per cent

What is per cent the alternative form of?
Per cent is the alternative form of percent.

Words near per cent in the dictionary

  1. per annum
  2. per anum
  3. per bend
  4. per bend sinister
  5. per capita
  6. per cent
  7. per cent.
  8. per centum
  9. per chevron
  10. per chief
  11. per contra

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: per cent (page history and authors); percent (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.

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