cent
noun
one 100th of the dollar, or other basic monetary unit, of various nations, including the United States. ¢, c
cent
1 American
[sent]
/ sɛnt /
cent-
2
American
cent.
3
American
abbreviation
-
centigrade.
-
central.
-
centum.
-
century.
cent
British
/ sɛnt /
noun
-
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
-
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)
cent
Idioms
Usage
What does cent- mean? Cent- is a combining form used like a prefix meaning “hundredth” or "hundred."Cent- comes from the Latin centum, meaning “hundred.” The word cent, as in a hundredth of a dollar and also known as a penny, ultimately comes from this same Latin root, as does percent. The Greek word for “hundred” is hekatón, source of the combining forms hecto-, hect-, hekto-, and hekt-, which you can learn more about in our Words That Use articles for the forms. Cent- is a variant of centi-, which loses its -i- when combined with words or word elements beginning with vowels. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use centi- article.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cent
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English, from Latin centēsimus “hundredth” (by shortening), equivalent to cent(um) “100” ( see hundred) + -ēsimus ordinal suffix
Explanation
A cent is a very small unit of money. In the US, one cent is the same thing as one penny. A cent is 1/100 of a dollar — in other words, there are 100 cents in a dollar. Many other currencies have a cent as well, including the European Union, Estonia, and Hong Kong, representing 1/100 of the basic unit of money. The word cent comes from the Latin centum, "hundred." In Middle English, cent meant "one hundred," but by the 1600s it came to mean "one hundredth."
Vocabulary lists containing cent
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Fifty per cent of men and 30% of women with untreated FH will develop coronary heart disease by the age of 55.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
The president of the American Farm Bureau Federation says “every cent per gallon matters” when you run a fleet of grain trucks.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 2026
Things have disintegrated since, hastened by the predictable filleting of goods and services to extrude every last cent of value.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Official data shows 23 per cent of investigations across England and Wales led to a charge or summons in the 12 months up to April this year.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
When I asked Doreen about this she said the tipping percentage might well have risen from ten to fifteen per cent since she was last in New York.
From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath
It was followed by several shells which dropped into the dunes, not far from the French battery of cent- vingt.
From The Soul of the War by Philip Gibbs
Asked if he understood the supporters' reaction at the result, Frank said: "Yes, 100 per cent. We all sense the frustration and the emotions. That is part of football."
From Barron's ● Nov. 1, 2025
“After 30 years now, my likeness is still being used. I don’t see a cent. They’re still exploiting my image,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2023
"They would rather risk your health than sacrifice a single cent. Disgusting."
From Salon ● Feb. 22, 2023
“I was there for five years without earning a cent. That is independent journalism. Ask how much the bosses of that ‘newspaper’ earn now and you’ll be surprised.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 17, 2021
“Humph, every cent. You won’t even have no social security if you’re dead. Better not die, that’s all I got to say.”
From "The Great Gilly Hopkins" by Katherine Paterson
A recent presentation of DWP’s long-term power plan modeled rates reaching 71.1 cents per kWh by 2044.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the year-ago profit was $549 million, or 64 cents a share.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
That translated into 91 cents per share, compared with expectations for $1.10 per share.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
So if we stick to a toy that retails for $30 in the US, and therefore costs $6 to make in China, the cost of getting it to the states is 60 cents.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
“Tell your friends to buy tickets. They’re now on sale in the student activities room. The price is seventy-five cents for students and one dollar for adults.”
From "Breaking Through" by Francisco Jiménez
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
