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• century
  century

  noun

  a period of 100 years.
• -century
  -century

  a combining form of century, affixed to the number that specifies the 100-year span cited, and used only as an adjective.

century

¹ American  

[sen-chuh-ree] / ˈsɛn tʃə ri /

noun

• centuries
  plural

1. a period of 100 years.

2. one of the successive periods of 100 years reckoned forward or backward from a recognized chronological epoch, especially from the assumed date of the birth of Jesus.

3. any group or collection of 100.

   a century of limericks.

4. (in the ancient Roman army) a company, consisting of approximately 100 men.

5. one of the voting divisions of the ancient Roman people, each division having one vote.

6. (initial capital letter) a style of type.

7. Slang. a hundred-dollar bill; 100 dollars.

8. Sports. a race of 100 yards or meters, as in track or swimming, or of 100 miles, as in bicycle racing.

9. Cricket. a score of at least 100 runs made by one batsman in a single inning.

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-century ² American  

[sen-chuh-ree] / ˈsɛn tʃə ri /

1. a combining form of century, affixed to the number that specifies the 100-year span cited, and used only as an adjective.

   19th-century American literature;

   a collection of 6th-century metal sculptures that was stolen in the late 20th century.

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century British  

/ ˈsɛntʃərɪ /

noun

1. a period of 100 years

2. one of the successive periods of 100 years dated before or after an epoch or event, esp the birth of Christ

3. 1. a score or grouping of 100

      to score a century in cricket

   2. ( as modifier )

      the basketball team passed the century mark in their last game

4. (in ancient Rome) a unit of foot soldiers, originally 100 strong, later consisting of 60 to 80 men See also maniple

5. (in ancient Rome) a division of the people for purposes of voting

6. (often capital) a style of type

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century Idioms  

1. see turn of the century.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• half-century
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• centuries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of century

First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin centuria “unit made up of 100 parts (especially a company of soldiers),” equivalent to cent(um) “hundred” + -uria, perhaps extracted from decuria “a division of 10 men”; see decury

Explanation

100 years is called a century. The computer, the television, and video games were all invented in the twentieth century. People are now wondering what the twenty-first century holds for us. The noun century comes from the Latin word centuria, which was a group of 100, particularly a group of 100 Roman soldiers (one of 16 such groups in a Roman legion). The word today still can refer to 100 of something. In sports, a century is a score of 100 in a game of cricket. A race of 100 yards or 100 miles is also sometimes called a century. In slang, century can also mean a 100 dollar bill.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

century -century centuries

About a century ago, archaeologists excavating pottery fragments around Tampa Bay encountered something puzzling.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026

It was under Germany's control in the early 20th century, but the colonisation ended shortly after World War One broke out.

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026

If Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s car had taken a different turn on that Sarajevo street in 1914, how might the 20th century have been different?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

Yet a look at market returns over the past century suggests that those fears may be somewhat overblown.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 4, 2026

And then he told her about being a child in rural Ohio nearly half a century ago, when the world was different and also not different.

From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman

As you write, “The post-Holocaust security of Israel thus stands as the constitutive exception on which 21st -century humanitarianism is based.”

From Salon ● Jul. 1, 2018

Until recently, many churches were that rare 21st -century phenomenon: the organically analog space.

From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2018

From posting on message boards to using Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, fertility doctors have appropriated 21st-century marketing methods to bring a 21 -century technology to the masses.

From Slate ● Sep. 14, 2012

City of Lincoln Council said it believed the hospital remained in use for about five centuries.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026

To reconstruct how stress changed over centuries, the researchers developed a physics-based, four-dimensional earthquake cycle model.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2026

“The students who graduate and the tech companies that come to Miami to leverage those skills will change the very fabric of Miami for decades if not centuries to come,” Griffin said in an interview.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026

They were first brutally forced to adopt Christianity and abandon their shamanism, before assimilation efforts intensified in the 19th and 20th centuries as the far north's economic importance grew.

From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026

The various well temperament tunings that were very popular in the 18th and 19th centuries tried to strike a balance between staying close to pure intervals and avoiding wolf intervals.

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones