Meaning & use
one-third
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Meanings
numbercountable
The amount you get when something is split into three equal parts and you take one of them.
Grammar: Takes a singular verb with a single noun: one-third of the cake is gone. With a plural noun, the verb agrees with it: one-third of the students are absent.
Patterns
- one-third of something
- a one-third share
One-third of the garden is planted with vegetables.
She spends about one-third of her salary on rent.
We finished only one-third of the climb before lunch.
adjectivebefore a noun
Making up a third part of a whole.
Grammar: Placed before a noun, often with a hyphen: a one-third share.
Patterns
- a one-third share
- a one-third discount
Each partner owns a one-third share of the business.
The shop offered a one-third discount on winter coats.
He received a one-third reduction in hours.
Common combinations
- one-third of the population
- One-third of the population lives in the capital.
- about one-third
- About one-third of the guests left before dessert.
- nearly one-third
- Nearly one-third of the reefs have been damaged.
- one-third full
- The tank is only one-third full.
- a one-third share
- Each of the three sisters inherited a one-third share.
Synonyms and how they differ
- a third
- A third is the same fraction and is more natural in speech, while one-third is often seen in written reports.
- 33 percent
- Thirty-three percent is the rounded decimal form, while one-third is exact.
- 1/3
- The written fraction 1/3 is shorter and used in numerals, but it is read aloud as one-third.
Word family
- two-thirds number
- two of three equal parts
- third noun
- one of three equal parts
- threefold adjective
- three times as much
- tripartite adjective
- divided into three parts
Commonly confused: one-third or third?
one-third vs third
Third alone is an ordinal number meaning number three in order. As a fraction, you need one before it or a, as in one-third or a third.
Practice
A recipe uses 3 cups of flour, and you want to use ____ of it for the topping, which is 1 cup.
Choose one answer.
One cup out of three is one-third. One-half would be 1.5 cups, and two-thirds would be 2 cups.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “one-third”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.