A value below which a certain percentage of data points fall. For example, the 80th percentile is the value below which 80% of the data lies.
From Latin 'per centum' (by the hundred) plus '-ile' (relating to division). Developed in the early 1900s as educators and psychologists needed ways to compare individual performance against group norms by dividing populations into 100 equal-sized ranking groups.
Percentiles transform any dataset into a universal ranking system from 0 to 100 - like giving every data point a 'class rank' in a school of 100 students! Your SAT score percentile tells you what percentage of test-takers you outperformed, making it more meaningful than the raw score alone.
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