centum
/ˈkɛntəm/
"centum" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“centum” is uncommon English (frequency #96,845 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #96,845
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Referring to an Indo-European language that did not produce sibilants from a series of Proto-Indo-European palatovelar stops.
Corpus desk
Index EN-centum · centum · English
centum · rank #96,845 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #96,845
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH Cephas
Nearest frequency peer: Cephas (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “centum”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Carillo
Carillo
3,165 corpus weight
- Carra
Carra
3,164 corpus weight
- Catford
Catford
3,160 corpus weight
- centum
centum
3,156 corpus weight
- Cephas
Cephas
3,155 corpus weight
- Cerny
Cerny
3,154 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “centum” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | centum |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈkɛntəm/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #96,845 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “centum” in English
Rare enough to double-check
centum is uncommon English at frequency #96,845 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈkɛntəm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Referring to an Indo-European language that did not produce sibilants from a series of Proto-Indo-European palatovelar stops.".
centum has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin centum (“hundred”), attested at least since 1890s. Its use in linguistics is due to it being a canonical example of a word retaining an original velar stop, as opposed to Avestan 𐬯𐬀𐬙𐬆𐬨 (satəm). Doublet of hundred and satem. The correct English form is centum, spelled C-E-N-T-U-M.
Definition
- 1Referring to an Indo-European language that did not produce sibilants from a series of Proto-Indo-European palatovelar stops.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how centum appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Table 10.1 shows the relative chronology of centum and satem entries to the west. Along each trajectory, centum languages precede satem languages, and the frontier languages, thos most clearly showing peripheral type shift, are centum.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin centum (“hundred”), attested at least since 1890s. Its use in linguistics is due to it being a canonical example of a word retaining an original velar stop, as opposed to Avestan 𐬯𐬀𐬙𐬆𐬨 (satəm). Doublet of hundred and satem.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "centum"?
What does "centum" mean?
How do you pronounce "centum"?
What is the origin of the word "centum"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "centum", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).