1 quartile | Definition of quartile

quartile

noun
quar·​tile | \ ˈkwȯr-ˌtī(-ə)l How to pronounce quartile (audio) , -tᵊl\

Definition of quartile

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

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Did You Know?

A quartile is a quarter of a specific group that has been tested or evaluated in specific ways. The first quartile is the one that scores highest and the fourth quartile scores lowest. For achievement and proficiency tests, the first quartile is the place to be; for blood pressure or cholesterol, the third quartile is healthier.

Examples of quartile in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Department stores all ranked in the lowest quartile among retailers who are hurt by tariffs, said Jharonne Martis, director of consumer research at Refinitiv. Maria Halkias, Dallas News, "J.C. Penney narrowed its loss on a 9% sales drop as CEO Soltau said, "we are rebuilding a business"," 15 Aug. 2019 Nationally, Paradise falls in the top quartile for age and disabilities. AZCentral.com, "Of small communities across 11 states, more than 500 have a higher wildfire hazard potential than Paradise, Calif.," 23 July 2019 And, importantly, there’s almost nobody in the bottom quartile of the ideological index on the Democratic side, and the entire bottom half is very sparsely populated. Matthew Yglesias, Vox, "A new survey shows how economic policy divides the GOP and unites Democrats," 11 June 2019 The top quartile of opioid prescribers in the practice of emergency medicine had a prescribing rate nearly three times higher than the average of their peers. Ryan Faircloth, Twin Cities, "Minnesota health care providers to receive reports on their opioid prescribing practices," 28 June 2019 The left-hand chart shows the percentage of US managers in the top quartile (best performing 25%) of 2014 that repeated the feat in succeeding years. The Economist, "Troubles at the Woodford investment group point to a wider trend," 6 June 2019 The best funds make returns in the top 25% of their group, also called the top quartile. Paul J. Davies, WSJ, "When Past Performance Actually Is a Guide to Future Results," 18 June 2018 Scores for the top quartile rose slightly in eighth-grade reading and math. Moriah Balingit, Washington Post, "National math and reading scores remain constant, but disparities emerge," 10 Apr. 2018 Its largest fund has consistently been in the top quartile of comparable funds formed the same year, measured by annualized returns after fees, according to data provider Preqin. James Freeman, WSJ, "The Red State Business Model," 11 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'quartile.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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First Known Use of quartile

1879, in the meaning defined above

History and Etymology for quartile

International Scientific Vocabulary, from Latin quartus

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More Definitions for quartile

quartile

noun

Financial Definition of quartile

What It Is

A quartile is one of four equal parts.

How It Works

For example, if we were to look at all of the closing prices for Company XYZ stock for every day in the last year, the top 25% of those prices would represent the upper quartile of the data. The bottom 25% of those prices would represent the lower quartile of the data. There would be two quartiles in between the upper and lower quartiles. The average of all the stock prices typically falls right in the middle, between the second and third quartiles.

Why It Matters

Quartiles are crucial for studying economic data, income data, stock data and virtually any other kind of financial information. By breaking things into quartiles, an analyst can make a variety of inferences about the data and how the observed item behaves.

Source: Investing Answers

More from Merriam-Webster on quartile

Rhyming Dictionary: Words that rhyme with quartile

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about quartile