per cent

Other spellings

• (US) percent

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA ^(key): /pəˈsɛnt/
• (US) IPA ^(key): /pɚˈsɛnt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

Singular per cent

Plural per cent

1. You use per cent show the number of parts out of one hundred. The symbol for per cent is %.

   The cost of gas has increased seven per cent in the last month.

Usage

Verbs should agree with the noun to which per cent refers, not with per cent itself. For example,

1. One per cent of politicians are (not is) honest.
2. Twenty per cent of the water was (not were) dirty.

Related words

• %