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
-
of or relating to a period of 100 years
-
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:
Founders appear at centenary celebrations and sign pledges to “common prosperity.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
The tournament will primarily be hosted by Morocco, Portugal and Spain - but the opening three matches will be played in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay as centenary hosts.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
Qualification will be absurdly easy - Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay are already there as hosts, staging one game each as a gesture of celebration for the World Cup centenary.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
A trio of books tied to her centenary reveal an obsessive reader and shrewd social observer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 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
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
Running from 13 July to 8 September, the 124th Proms season will mark several centenaries: Leonard Bernstein's birth, Claude Debussy's death and the parliamentary recognition of women's right to vote.
From BBC ● Apr. 18, 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
The centenaries of Hawthorne and Longfellow and Whittier were celebrated at a period of comparative indifference to their significance.
From Modern American Prose Selections by Rees, Byron J. (Byron Johnson)
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.
