percentile

[ per-sen-tahyl, -til ]
/ pərˈsɛn taɪl, -tɪl /
Statistics.

noun

one of the values of a variable that divides the distribution of the variable into 100 groups having equal frequencies: Ninety percent of the values lie at or below the ninetieth percentile, ten percent above it.

adjective

of or relating to a percentile or a division of a distribution by percentiles.

Origin of percentile

First recorded in 1880–85; percent + -ile

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH percentile

percent percentage percentile (see usage note at percent)

Words nearby percentile

perceived noise decibel, percent, percent sign, percentage, percenter, percentile, percept, perceptible, perception, perceptive, perceptual

Example sentences from the Web for percentile

British Dictionary definitions for percentile

percentile
/ (pəˈsɛntaɪl) /

noun

one of 99 actual or notional values of a variable dividing its distribution into 100 groups with equal frequencies; the 90th percentile is the value of a variable such that 90% of the relevant population is below that value Also called: centile

Scientific definitions for percentile

percentile
[ pər-sĕn′tīl′ ]

Any of the 100 equal parts into which the range of the values of a set of data can be divided in order to show the distribution of those values. The percentile of a given value is determined by the percentage of the values that are smaller than that value. For example, a test score that is higher than 95 percent of the other scores is in the 95th percentile.