cent

¹

[ sent ]

noun

1. one 100th of the dollar, or other basic monetary unit, of various nations, including the United States. : ¢, c
2. penny ( def 1 ):

   Sorry, I’ve only got two dimes, a nickel, and four cents.

3. a monetary unit of certain European Union countries, one 100th of a euro.

cent-

²

1. variant of centi- before a vowel:

   centare.

cent.

³

abbreviation for

1. centigrade.
2. central.
3. centum.
4. century.

cent

/ sɛnt /

noun

1. a monetary unit of American Samoa, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Brunei, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guyana, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Micronesia, Monaco, Montenegro, Namibia, Nauru, the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, the Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Surinam, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, the United States, the Vatican City, the Virgin Islands, and Zimbabwe. It is worth one hundredth of their respective standard units
2. an interval of pitch between two frequencies f 2 and f 1 equal to 3986.31 log ( f 2 / f 1 ); one twelve-hundredth of the interval between two frequencies having the ratio 1:2 (an octave)

Word History and Origins

Origin of cent¹

First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English, from Latin centēsimus “hundredth” (by shortening), equivalent to cent(um) “100” ( hundred ) + -ēsimus ordinal suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of cent¹

C16: from Latin centēsimus hundredth, from centum hundred

Idioms and Phrases

see for two cents ; not worth a dime (red cent) ; put in one's two cents .

Example Sentences

The digital coin, priced at less than a cent when it was created more than a decade ago, now has a market capitalization of more than $802 billion, according to CoinDesk.

From Washington Post

It has a rainy-day fund of more than $10 billion that will allow it to keep the lights on without another cent coming through the door for about 70 days.

From Time

Where the apps have really come under fire is the many less than honest methods of competing with each other while squeezing out every possible cent from restaurants.

From Eater

Scoring 50 per cent, Soeder was the third-most popular politician, while Merz scored 37 per cent in sixth place, Laschet 31 per cent in eighth and Roettgen 29 per cent in ninth.

From Time

To get the most bang for your buck—or suction power for your cents—choose a corded model that doesn’t compromise on extras.

From Popular-Science

For example, since 2011 it has been adding 30 per cent more capacity per year on flights to Puerto Rico.

From The Daily Beast

The Wall Street Journal reported that in the U.S. 44 per cent of drinkers aged between 21 and 27 had never even tried Budweiser.

From The Daily Beast

In Kentucky the bourbon distillers have had to increase their payrolls by 77 per cent in two years to meet the demand.

From The Daily Beast

Force senators, their spouses and their immediate family to report their wealth down to the last dollar and cent.

From The Daily Beast

And--crucially--if no one gets 50 per cent of the vote, the top two candidates face off on December 6th.

From The Daily Beast

The Act permits member banks to accept an amount of bills not exceeding 50 per cent.

From Project Gutenberg

We did not talk much about the past at dinner, except—ah me, how bitterly we regretted our 10 per cent.

From Project Gutenberg

Up to the present, I have not received a cent from the revolutionists or from the Spanish Government to cover these expenses.

From Project Gutenberg

The percentage of gold to the notes—the main demand liability—has, of course, fallen from about 65 to 35 per cent.

From Project Gutenberg

At present this medium is paper money depreciated, as in the case of the Reichsbank notes, by nearly 30 per cent.

From Project Gutenberg