century

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A period of one hundred years.

   The cathedral was built more than a century ago.

2. 2
   noun

   One of the numbered hundred-year periods used to date history, such as the twentieth century (1901–2000).

   Many great inventions appeared in the nineteenth century.

3. 3
   noun

   A score of one hundred runs by a batsman in cricket.

   He scored a century in the second innings.

From Middle English centurie (“a count of one hundred (of anything); a division of the Roman army; century; a division of land”), from Old French centurie, from Latin centuria, from centum (“one hundred”). The most common modern use is a shortening of century of years.

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