centenary
Americanadjective
-
of or relating to a period of 100 years.
-
recurring once in every 100 years.
a centenary celebration.
noun
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centenaries
plural
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a centennial.
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a period of 100 years; century.
adjective
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of or relating to a period of 100 years
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occurring once every 100 years
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of centenary
1600–10; < Latin centēnārius (adj.), equivalent to centēn ( ī ) a hundred each ( cent ( um ) 100 + -ēnī distributive suffix) + -ārius -ary
Explanation
A centenary is the hundredth anniversary of some event. When your great grandfather turns 100, his birthday party will be the centenary of his birth. If your town is celebrating its centenary, that means it's exactly 100 years old. You can also use this word as an adjective, to describe something that's been around for a hundred years: "The orchestra's centenary concert will happen next summer." Centenary comes from the Latin centum, "hundred," which is also the root of its synonym, centennial.
Vocabulary lists containing centenary
Perfect Ten: Dec, Cent, Mille
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dec, cent, mille
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2015 National Spelling Bee Words
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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:
Sir Henry Wood composed the melody for the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1905.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
The basilica was due to be finished for this year’s centenary of Gaudí’s death.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Hassan Perez, a historian, former student leader and close collaborator of Castro, acknowledged that the centenary was arriving under "the most complex conditions that could have been imagined."
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
He resurfaced, conspicuously, at the Communist Party’s centenary celebration in Tiananmen Square the following summer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
A recent centenary conference and festival devoted to him in modern Hungary simply described him, correctly, as 'European'.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
The festival was bookended by two comedies celebrating their centenaries: Charlie Chaplin’s “The Gold Rush” and Buster Keaton’s “Go West.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 17, 2025
"This event is very much in keeping with the reconciliation efforts of successive Irish presidents and the Queen over recent years and the inclusive approach to marking the decade of centenaries," he said.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2021
It celebrates the centenaries of two laws that enfranchised some British women and gave those over 21 the right to stand for Parliament.
From Economist ● Apr. 19, 2018
The Ruders, a joint commission by the Britten-Pears Foundation and the Royal Philharmonic Society in honour of their various centenaries and bicentenaries, was delightful from beginning to end.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 11, 2013
George Eliot and Ruskin, for instance, whose centenaries fall in this year, suffer the dark reproach of having been "Victorians."
From Modern American Prose Selections by Byron J. (Byron Johnson) Rees
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.
