Century Definition
century
Wikipedia has an article on: Century
Contents |
English
Etymology
From Latin centuria.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA: /ˈsɛn.tʃə.ɹiː/
- (US) IPA: /ˈsɛn.tʃɚ.i/
-
Audio (US) (file)
Noun
century (plural centuries)
- A period of 100 consecutive years; often specifically a numbered period with conventional start and end dates, e.g., the twentieth century, which stretches from (strictly) 1901 through 2000, or (informally) 1900 through 1999. The first century AD was from 1 to 100.
- A unit in ancient Roman, originally of 100 army soldiers as part of a cohort, later of more varied sizes (but typically containing 60 to 70 or 80) soldiers or other men (guards, police, firemen), commanded by a centurion.
- A political division of ancient Rome, meeting in the Centuriate Assembly.
- (archaic) A hundred things; a hundred.
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.4.2.i:
- 'tis the subject of whole books: I might cite a century of authors pro and con.
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.4.2.i:
- (cricket) A hundred runs scored either by a single player in one innings, or by two players in a partnership.
- (US, cycling) A ride 100 miles in length.
- (US, informal) A banknote in the denomination of one hundred dollars.
Usage notes
Neither the word century itself nor phrases like the twentieth century are proper nouns. Therefore "in the twentieth century", "in the 20th century", and the like should be written with lowercase letters, except in contexts (like book titles) where even common nouns are capitalized.
Synonyms
- (Roman army unit) centuria
Derived terms
Terms derived from centuryRelated terms
Statistics
- Most common English words before 1923: floor · example · class · #984: century · sorry · share · working
|
[Hide]▼
A century (from the Latin centum, meaning one hundred) is one hundred consecutive years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages (e.g. "the 7th century AD/CE").
[Hide]▲