# What proportions do you think of when you read this sort of sentence(s) about riot deaths

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-proportions-do-you-think-of-when-you-read-this-sort-of-sentence-s-about-riot-deaths/699935>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 30, 2014, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-proportions-do-you-think-of-when-you-read-this-sort-of-sentence-s-about-riot-deaths/699935 "2014-09-30T03:24:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-proportions-do-you-think-of-when-you-read-this-sort-of-sentence-s-about-riot-deaths/699935/21 "2014-09-30T15:38:50Z")

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At present, all I’m getting from this is that journalists need to be more precise with their language.

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**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-proportions-do-you-think-of-when-you-read-this-sort-of-sentence-s-about-riot-deaths/699935/22 "2014-09-30T17:22:30Z")

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Both words mean “the greater part of”. They are, by definition, vague. The only proportion I think of when reading either is that more of that category than the other(s). In the case of 2 choices, somewhere between 51% and about 90%. I do tend to draw the conclusion that the writer couldn’t be arsed to find the specifc number or range.

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**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2014, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-proportions-do-you-think-of-when-you-read-this-sort-of-sentence-s-about-riot-deaths/699935/23 "2014-09-30T18:42:26Z")

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If I had any context, I’d probably use that to help. for example, if I knew that the rioters were 95% Muslim, then I’d apply that percentage to my assumption of the kill distribution.

In this case, I’m answering the poll purely from a linguistics standpoint. When I read “mostly” or “mainly” I tend to assume about 65%. The words only require 51%, but I personally would describe anything between 40-60% as “about half.”

I would not use those terms for anything more than about 85%. If I wanted to communicate that, I’d say “the vast majority” or “almost all” instead.

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