quintile

noun

quin·​tile ˈkwin-ˌtī(-ə)l 

: any of the four values that divide the items of a frequency distribution into five classes with each containing one fifth of the total population

also : any one of the five classes

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Breaking Down the Meaning of Quintile

Many people have a deep interest in statistics about themselves, whether the information provided is about income, ice-cream consumption, or trash production. And any such rating can be divided into fifths, or quintiles. The fifth or lowest quintile would include the 20 percent of the population who make the least money or eat the least ice cream or generate the least trash, and the first quintile would include the 20 percent who make, eat, or generate the most.

Examples of quintile in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Nationally, only 10% of medical students are Black and 12% are Latinx while nearly 80% of medical students come from the top two quintiles of household income. —Dr. Carmen Renée Green, New York Daily News, 22 Feb. 2024

Nearly a third of students who graduate from HBCUs will move up at least two income quintiles from their parents by the age of 30. —Sara Chernikoff, USA TODAY, 21 May 2024

By contrast, the next-best performers (those in the fourth quintile) earned just 9%. —Mohamed Kande and Lang Davidson Of Pwc, Quartz, 8 Mar. 2024

The benefits of being a quadratic company To arrive in that top-performance quintile, quadratic companies make mutually reinforcing investments in their business, operating, and technology models, which in turn drive performance factors such as innovation, speed-to-market, and flexibility. —Mohamed Kande and Lang Davidson Of Pwc, Quartz, 8 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Latin quintus + English -ile entry 2

First Known Use

1922, in the meaning defined above