# Quarters = quartiles; thirds = ?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quarters-quartiles-thirds/275720>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 19, 2004, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quarters-quartiles-thirds/275720 "2004-11-19T21:13:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quarters-quartiles-thirds/275720/1 "2004-11-19T21:13:34Z")

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Is there a term similar to quartile for a range of values split into thirds? Something other than lower, middle, and upper?

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**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quarters-quartiles-thirds/275720/2 "2004-11-19T21:21:20Z")

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Though pretty rare, I have seen _tertile_.

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**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quarters-quartiles-thirds/275720/3 "2004-11-19T21:47:05Z")

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That’ll do, thanks!

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**Author:** ![Daizy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Daizy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daizy)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quarters-quartiles-thirds/275720/4 "2004-11-19T21:54:43Z")

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Found [this](http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/309/6960/996) as well.

Like **JeffB** , I’ve heard, terciles are thirds, quartiles are quarters, and quintiles are fifths.

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**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quarters-quartiles-thirds/275720/5 "2004-11-19T22:52:18Z")

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You could also use n-tiles to represent a split into n pieces–it’s not standard, but everyone would probably know what you’re talking about.