percentile

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

• enPR: pər-sĕnʹ-tīl, IPA^(key): /pəɹˈsɛn.taɪl/
  • (US) IPA^(key): /pɚˈsɛn.taɪl/
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /pəˈsɛn.taɪl/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛntaɪl

percentile (plural percentiles)

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

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

   • 2018 April 4, Elissa Strauss, “Growth charts for kids don’t measure up”, in CNN‎^[1], archived from the original on 5 April 2018:

     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.

When comparing performance, a higher percentile is better; to be in the "90th percentile" is to have performed better than 90% of the rest of the group.

• %ile

• centile

• quantile

• (statistics):
• median (2-quantile), tercile/tertile (3), quartile (4), pentile/quintile (5), sextile (6), septile (7), octile (8), decile (10), hexadecile (16), ventile/vigintile (20), centile/percentile (100), millile/permillile (1000)

• pencil tree

From percento +‎ -ile.

• IPA^(key): /per.t͡ʃenˈti.le/
• Rhymes: -ile
• Hyphenation: per‧cen‧tì‧le

percentile m (plural percentili)

1. (statistics) percentile