proportion
n. C / Un. a part or share of a whole. It also describes how the size or amount of one thing compares to another.
n. a part, share, or number considered in comparative relation to a whole. Often used to describe the relationship between different dimensions or quantities.
A large proportion of the students live near the school.
The architect carefully adjusted the proportion of the windows to ensure the building looked balanced from the street.
While the total number of applicants has increased, the proportion of successful candidates remains remarkably consistent with previous years, suggesting that the selection criteria have not significantly changed.
From Middle English proporcion, from Old French proportion, from Latin prōportiō (“comparative relation, proportion, symmetry, analogy”), from pro (“for, before”) + portio (“share, part”); see portion.
Uncountable when referring to the abstract concept of balance or scale; countable when referring to specific shares or parts of a total.
a big proportion of peoplea large proportion of peopleIn academic and formal contexts, 'proportion' collocations prefer 'large' or 'high' over 'big'.