century

Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Acronyms, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

cen·tu·ry

(sĕn′chə-rē)

n. pl. cen·tu·ries

a. A period of 100 years.

b. Each of the successive periods of 100 years before or since the advent of the Christian era.

a. A unit of the Roman army originally consisting of 100 men.

b. One of the 193 electoral divisions of the Roman people.

3. A group of 100 things.

[Latin centuria, a group of a hundred, from centum, hundred; see dekm̥ in Indo-European roots.]

cen·tu′ri·al adj.

cen′tu·ry·long′ adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

century

(ˈsɛntʃərɪ)

n, pl -ries

1. a period of 100 years

2. one of the successive periods of 100 years dated before or after an epoch or event, esp the birth of Christ

a. a score or grouping of 100: to score a century in cricket.

b. chiefly US (as modifier): the basketball team passed the century mark in their last game.

4. (Military) (in ancient Rome) a unit of foot soldiers, originally 100 strong, later consisting of 60 to 80 men. See also maniple

5. (Historical Terms) (in ancient Rome) a unit of foot soldiers, originally 100 strong, later consisting of 60 to 80 men. See also maniple

6. (Historical Terms) (in ancient Rome) a division of the people for purposes of voting

7. (Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) (often capital) a style of type

[C16: from Latin centuria, from centum hundred]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

cen•tu•ry

(ˈsɛn tʃə ri)

n., pl. -ries.

1. a period of 100 years.

2. one of the successive periods of 100 years reckoned forward or backward from a recognized chronological epoch, esp. from the assumed date of the birth of Jesus.

3. any group or collection of 100.

4. a subdivision of the Roman legion, orig. consisting of 100 men.

5. one of the voting divisions of the ancient Roman people, each division having one vote.

[1525–35; < Latin centuria, derivative of cent(um) hundred]

Century

a group of a hundred things; a period of one hundred years; a body of one hundred men or troops.

Examples: century of copies, 1867; of sultrying passions, 1598; of prayers, 1611; of sonnets, 1855; of troops; of words, 1737; of years.

century

A measure of time equal to 100 years.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun	1.	century - a period of 100 years period, period of time, time period - an amount of time; "a time period of 30 years"; "hastened the period of time of his recovery"; "Picasso's blue period" millennium, millenary - a span of 1000 years decade, decennary, decennium - a period of 10 years quattrocento - the 15th century in Italian art and literature twentieth century - the century from 1901 to 2000 half-century - a period of 50 years quarter-century - a period of 25 years
	2.	century - ten 10s 100, hundred, one C, C large integer - an integer equal to or greater than ten

Translations

eeu

قَرْنمِئَةُ جَوْلَهمِئَةُ سَنَه

stoletístovka

århundredehundredårhundrede pointårhundred

JahrhundertZenturie

αιώνας

jarcento

siglo centuria

vuosisata

siècle centurie

शताब्दी

stoljećevijek

évszázadszázad

abad

öldhundraî stig

secolo centuria centinaio centone

世紀

1 세기

amžiusšimtinėšimtmetis

gadsimtssimts skrējienu

eeuwcenturie

århundre

stulecie wiekcenturia

século centúria

secolveac

век

storočiestotinastovka

stoletjestotnija

stotina

århundradesekel

ศตวรรษ

yüzyıl asıryüz sayı

thế kỷ

世纪板球中的一百分

century

[ˈsentjʊrɪ] N

1. (= 100 years) → siglo m
in the 20th century → en el siglo veinte

2. (Cricket) → cien puntos mpl, cien carreras fpl

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

century

[ˈsɛntʃəri] n

(= one hundred years) → siècle m
the 20th century → le vingtième siècle
the 21st century → le vingt et unième siècle
in the twentieth century → au vingtième siècle

(CRICKET) (= one hundred runs) → série f de cent courses

century

→ Jahrhundert nt; in the twentieth century → im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert; (written) → im 20. Jahrhundert

(Cricket) → Hundert f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

century

[ˈsɛntjʊrɪ] n → secolo; (in cricket) → cento punti
in the twentieth century → nel ventesimo secolo

century

(ˈsentʃəri) noun – plural ˈcenturies –

1. a (period of a) hundred years. the 19th century; for more than a century.

2. in cricket, a hundred runs. He has just made his second century this year.

century

→ قَرْن století århundrede Jahrhundert αιώνας siglo vuosisata siècle stoljeće secolo 世紀 1 세기 eeuw århundre stulecie século век århundrade ศตวรรษ yüzyıl thế kỷ 世纪

References in classic literature ?

The adventures of the Yellow Diamond begin with the eleventh century of the Christian era.

One age followed another until the first years of the eighteenth Christian century saw the reign of Aurungzebe, Emperor of the Moguls.

View in context

This was Carlo Goldoni, one of the first of the realists, but antedating conscious realism so long as to have been born at Venice early in the eighteenth century, and to have come to his hand-to-hand fight with the romanticism of his day almost before that century had reached its noon.

View in context

Herodotus indeed puts both poets 400 years before his own time; that is, at about 830-820 B.C., and the evidence stated above points to the middle of the ninth century as the probable date for the "Works and Days".

View in context

And what would a sub-chanter of the sixteenth century say, on beholding the beautiful yellow wash, with which our archiepiscopal vandals have desmeared their cathedral?

View in context

Elizabethan prose, all too chaotic in the beauty and force which overflowed into it from Elizabethan poetry, and incorrect with an incorrectness which leaves it scarcely legitimate prose at all: then, in reaction against that, the correctness of Dryden, and his followers through the eighteenth century, determining the standard of a prose in the proper sense, not inferior to the prose of the Augustan age in Latin, or of the "great age in France": and, again in reaction against this, the wild mixture of poetry and prose, in our wild nineteenth century, under the influence of such writers as Dickens and Carlyle: such are the three periods into which the story of our prose literature divides itself.

View in context

The Britons, before and during the Roman occupation, to the fifth century. B.

View in context

Mezeriac, the life of Aesop was from the pen of Maximus Planudes, a monk of Constantinople, who was sent on an embassy to Venice by the Byzantine Emperor Andronicus the elder, and who wrote in the early part of the fourteenth century. His life was prefixed to all the early editions of these fables, and was republished as late as 1727 by Archdeacon Croxall as the introduction to his edition of Aesop.

View in context

For a time, I used to wake up, mornings, and smile at my "dream," and listen for the Colt's factory whistle; but that sort of thing played itself out, gradually, and at last I was fully able to realize that I was actually living in the sixth century, and in Arthur's court, not a lunatic asylum.

View in context

Once or twice in the course of a century I unclose my lips.

View in context

These old Irish manuscripts are perhaps none of them older than the eleventh century, but the stories are far, far older.

View in context

Too late did the socialist movement of the early twentieth century divine the coming of the Oligarchy.