What is a percentage?

Answer 1

A percentage means "for every one hundred". So if you get a hit 27 times for every 100 times you are at bat, your percentage and Batting Average is .270, which represents 27 percent.

Percentages are actually fractions with a denominator of 100, hence the percentage sign:% looks a bit like 2 zeros. It is a part of something, with 0% being none of something, and 100% being all of it (e.g. n% of a Pizza, n% of your life, even n% of a number).
A percentage is something out of 100. Like 50% is 50/100 or 1/2.
A percent is a number expressed with a % sign that represents a fraction with a denominator of 100 (which is the same as a decimal in which the decimal point is moved two places to the left).

Examples:

45% = 45/100

45% = 0.45

87% = 87/100

87% = 0.87

Many people use percent and percentage interchangeably. However, sometimes they are differentiated by percent meaning "per 100" and percentage meaning the actual quantity (i.e., the percent multiplied by the number of which a percent is being taken).

Example:

2% of 500 = 10; 2 is the percent and 10 is the percentage

10% of 30 = 3; 10 is the percent and 3 is the percentage

Example of use in a sentence:

What is the percent of people who ordered the pepperoni pizza? 65%

What is the percentage of people who ordered the pepperoni pizza? 961

There is also a suggested difference in use in rules of grammar. Percent must be used with a number, but percentage is used when there is not a number.

Example:

He wasted 30 percent of the food when he forgot to put it in the refrigerator.

He wasted a significant percentage of the food when he forgot to put it in the refrigerator.

Answer 2

A percentage is a part of the whole - with whole equalling 100%. For example, a cake cut into ten slices, 1 slice will equall 1/10th, and if removed, 9/10th of the cake will remain on the plate.

Answer 3

It is [ 100A ] percent.