hect-

Hect- is a combining form used like a prefix meaning “hundred.” It is very occasionally used in technical terms, especially in measurements.

Hect- comes from Greek hekatón, meaning “hundred,” which is distantly related both to English hundred and Latin centum, “hundred.” Find out more at our entries for cent and hundred.

What are variants of hect-?

Hect- is a variant of hecto-, which loses its -o- when combined with words or word elements beginning with vowels. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use hecto- article.

In some rare instances, hecto- and hect- are spelled with a -k-, becoming hekto- and hekt-.

One example of a technical term that features the combining form hect- is hectare, “a unit of surface, or land, measure equal to 100 ares, or 10,000 square meters.” Hectare comes from the French hectare, which uses the equivalent of the form hect-.

The hect- portion of the word means “hundred,” while the -are portion of the word is “a measure of surface area equal to 100 square meters,” from Latin ārea. Hectare literally translates to “a hundred ares.”

What are some words that use the combining form hect-?

• hectad

What are some other forms that hect- may be commonly confused with?

• helic-
• hept-
• hex-
• -sect

Not every word that begins with the letters hect-, such as hectic, is necessarily using the combining form hect- to mean “hundred.” Learn why hectic means “busy” at our entry for the word.

The suffix -ad indicates a group or unit that includes a certain number. Based on the meaning of hect-, what is a hectad?