I. pə(r)ˈsent adverb
Etymology: from per century, abbreviation for per centum, from Latin
: in the hundred : of each hundred
a rate of … 1 shilling 3 pence percent — W.D.Winter
cannot recover if he is even one percent responsible for the accident — S.H.Hofstadter
agreed with her suggestions a hundred percent — Sally Benson
II. noun
( plural percent or percents )
1.
a. : one part in a hundred : hundredth
while they are laboring with tenths of a percent , the rest of us are letting tens of percents slip through our fingers — S.L.Payne
come upon stars which can not have spent more than a few percent of their hydrogen — G.W.Gray b.1886
provided forty percent of Europe's requirements — Harold Butler
— symbol 5
b. : percentage
a large percent of the hotel's income … stems from convention visitors — G.T.Hellman
manufacturing and mercantile rates are both percents of the fire insurance rate — Robert Riegel & J.S.Miller
2. percents plural , Britain : securities bearing a specified rate of interest
invested in three percents
III. adjective
1. : reckoned on the basis of a whole divided into one hundred parts
a five percent increase
harvested 50 percent more wheat because of timely rains
another 100 percent result — Manchester Guardian Weekly
2. : paying interest at a specified percent
a 3 1/2 percent government bond