percentage sign
- noun
- /pərˈsɛntɪdʒ saɪn/
:
signo de porcentaje
- In mathematics, the percentage sign is often used to represent proportions out of 100.
Examples
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To express the discount, write the amount followed by the percentage sign.
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When calculating the final price, don’t forget to add the percentage sign to indicate a percentage.
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And then a space and a percentage sign, capital H for hour: and then a percentage sign and capital M for minutes.
Synonyms
A symbol you put after a number to show parts out of 100
How Informative
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'percentage' (a proportion out of 100) combined with 'sign' (a symbol) yields the symbol representing a percentage. This noun+noun compound follows common cross-linguistic patterns and would be immediately inferable to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
The percentage sign may come from the old Italian phrase 'per cento', which means 'for each hundred'. People shortened it by writing per above cento, and that quick writing turned into a small circle, a diagonal line, and another circle — the sign we now use to show 'parts out of 100'.