How can percentage be best described?

A percentage can be understood as a way to express a number as a fraction of 100. When we say "per cent," it literally means "per hundred." This is foundational to how percentages function in mathematics and everyday calculations. For example, if you have a score of 75 out of 100, you can describe this as 75%, meaning 75 parts out of a whole of 100 parts, or simply put, a part of a whole expressed in terms of per hundred.

In practical applications, percentages are also commonly used to represent discounts. For instance, if a shop offers a 20% discount, it indicates that 20 parts out of every 100 parts of the original price are being removed from the total cost.

Thus, all of these descriptions—being a part of a whole, being expressed as per hundred, and being associated with discounts—illustrate different aspects of what a percentage represents. The collective notion ties together the concept of percentage, confirming that all these descriptions are correct in their context.