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.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Century comes from Latin centuria, derived from centum, “hundred.” Latin centuria denoted a group of one hundred, especially a company in the Roman army, and early English century likewise meant simply “a hundred.” The sense “period of one hundred years” arose in the early 17th century from the phrase “a century of years.”

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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