Origin: French suffix -age
Percentage has 3 different meanings across 1 category:
a proportion in relation to a whole (which is usually the amount per hundred)
"The survey results showed that 85% of respondents preferred remote work over commuting daily."
assets belonging to or due to or contributed by an individual person or group
"he wanted his share in cash"
The amount, number or rate of something, regarded as part of a total of 100; a part of a whole.
"The survey showed that sixty percent of the voters planned to support the new policy."
In plain English: A percentage is a way to show how much something is out of 100.
"The percentage of students who passed the exam was surprisingly high this year."
Usage: Use "percentage" to refer to a specific portion of a whole expressed in hundredths, such as saying the tax rate is a certain percentage. Do not use it interchangeably with "percent," which functions as an adjective or adverb modifying a number (e.g., 5 percent).
The word percentage comes from the combination of percent, meaning "for every hundred," and the suffix -age. This phrase traveled into English to describe a rate calculated out of one hundred.