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:
Taalas can price a million tokens to a fraction of a cent for as long as its model is wanted.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
On a per-share basis, quarterly earnings of 1 cent came in ahead of analyst expectations for a quarterly loss of 5 cents.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
“This is my 33rd year and I haven’t been paid a cent and I’m not looking for a cent,” said the 76-year-old, who is a former Servite parent.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
The 28-year-old is set to become Atletico's fourth signing of the summer, while Spurs will also retain a 15 per cent sell-on clause as part of the deal.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
“The syndicate is paying five cents apiece for plum tomatoes that cost you only half a cent apiece. How does the syndicate benefit?”
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
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
"One hundred per cent. Not only is it just wasting so much time, but it feels like there's just less and less privacy in the world. Everything you do is constantly out there."
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2022
“I’ve got the only one I ever met whom I would trust seventy-five per cent. I’ve told her that,” he said.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
This has also created severe concentration in the sector, with 86 cents for every dollar of venture capital raised going to AI companies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Taalas says running a million tokens on the HC1 would cost 0.75 cents, against 3.79 cents on an Nvidia GPU configured to serve as many users at once as possible.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
The owner of beauty brands such as MAC, Smashbox and Jo Malone on Wednesday posted a loss of $116 million, or 32 cents a share, for its three months ended June 30.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
Your correspondent, just to share my two cents, has been arguing that longer-term inflation-protected Treasury bonds have looked pretty cheap for some time.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026
That would leave them with two dollars and forty-eight cents.
From "Homecoming" by Cynthia Voigt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
