Per cent or percent?
per cent is a noun meaning “Alternative form of percent”; percent is a noun meaning “A percentage, a proportion (especially per hundred)”. per cent is written as two words and percent as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between per cent and percent?
| per cent | percent | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, prepositional phrase | adverb, noun, prepositional phrase |
| Meaning | CommonwealthAlternative form of percent | USFor every hundred (used with preceding numeral to form a noun phrase expressing a proportion) A percentage, a proportion (especially per hundred) One part per hundred; one percent, hundredth |
| Example | none recorded | 10 percent off all swimwear this week! |
| Forms | none | percents |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /pəˈsɛnt/ /pɚˈsɛnt/ /pəˈsent/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 110 times per million words |
Sources: per cent and percent in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of per cent and percent
per cent
- 1
CommonwealthAlternative form of percent
- 2
CommonwealthAlternative form of percent
- 3
Alternative form of percent
percent
- 1
USFor every hundred (used with preceding numeral to form a noun phrase expressing a proportion)
10 percent off all swimwear this week!
- 2
A percentage, a proportion (especially per hundred)
only a small percent attain the top ranks
- 3
Per hundred
- 4
One part per hundred; one percent, hundredth
- 5
The percent sign, %
- 6
An annuity or security with a certain fixed and guaranteed annual percentage rate of return or percentage dividend
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, per cent or percent?
per cent is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; percent 110 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search per cent vs percent?
“per cent vs percent” is searched about 1,300 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“percent vs per cent”, “per cent or percent”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.