percentile

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/pəɹˈsɛn.taɪl/US/pɚˈsɛn.taɪl/UK/pəˈsɛn.taɪl/

noun

Any of the ninety-nine points that divide an ordered distribution into one hundred parts, each containing one per cent of the population.

“She is highly intelligent—she has an IQ in the top percentile.”

CommonScrabble 14

Meanings

nounpercentile (plural percentiles)

plural percentiles

  1. mathematicsAny of the ninety-nine points that divide an ordered distribution into one hundred parts, each containing one per cent of the population.
  2. mathematicsAny one of the hundred groups so divided.

    She is highly intelligent—she has an IQ in the top percentile.

    1 more example

    Also, doctors are much more interested in the relationship between the percentiles for weight and length than they are the numbers themselves. Healthy babies tend to land in somewhat similar percentiles for both metrics and are probably getting enough nutrition. This goes for those babies who don’t chart at all. Because it is impossible for researchers to determine what is the largest and smallest possible weight and length for babies, designers begin the charts at the fifth percentile and end them at the 95th percentile. This means 10% of babies are, like my son, unchartable.

    2018 April 4, Elissa Strauss, “Growth charts for kids don’t measure up”, in CNN, archived from the original on 05 Apr 2018

Synonyms & antonyms

Broader

noun(statistics) any of the 99 numbered points that divide an ordered set of scores into 100 parts each of which contains one-hundredth of the total

Similar

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

Coined by Francis Galton in 1885, from percent + -ile.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Czech procentil, procentil
  • procentilany of the ninety-nine points
  • procentilany one of the hundred groups so divided
Danish percentil, percentil
  • percentilany of the ninety-nine points
  • percentilany one of the hundred groups so divided
Estonian protsentiil, protsentiil
  • protsentiilany of the ninety-nine points
  • protsentiilany one of the hundred groups so divided
Finnish persentiili, persentiili
  • persentiiliany of the ninety-nine points
  • persentiiliany one of the hundred groups so divided
German Perzentil, Perzentil
  • Perzentilany of the ninety-nine points
  • Perzentilany one of the hundred groups so divided
Indonesian persentil, presentil
  • persentilany of the ninety-nine points
  • presentilany of the ninety-nine points
  • persentilany one of the hundred groups so divided
  • presentilany one of the hundred groups so divided
Italian percentile, percentile
  • percentileany of the ninety-nine points
  • percentileany one of the hundred groups so divided
Portuguese percentil, percentil
  • percentilany of the ninety-nine points
  • percentilany one of the hundred groups so divided
Russian перцентиль, центиль
  • перцентиль (percentilʹ)any of the ninety-nine points
  • центиль (centilʹ)any of the ninety-nine points
  • процентиль (procentilʹ)any of the ninety-nine points
  • перцентиль (percentilʹ)any one of the hundred groups so divided
  • центиль (centilʹ)any one of the hundred groups so divided
  • процентиль (procentilʹ)any one of the hundred groups so divided
Spanish percentil
  • percentilany of the ninety-nine points
Swedish percentil, percentil
  • percentilany of the ninety-nine points
  • percentilany one of the hundred groups so divided
Tagalog kabahagdanin, kabahagdanin
  • kabahagdaninany of the ninety-nine points
  • kabahagdaninany one of the hundred groups so divided
Cite this entry
APA

percentile. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/percentile

MLA

“percentile.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/percentile. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “percentile,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/percentile.

Source: percentile on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.