century
cen·tu·ry/ˈsɛn.(t)ʃ(ə.)ɹi/noun
century is spelled C-E-N-T-U-R-Y, 3 syllables: cen·tu·ry. The wrong spelling people search most is centruy: about 100 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 115 of all searches for the word. Century is a noun meaning “A period of one hundred consecutive years; often specifically a numbered period with conventional start and…”. The plural of century is centuries.
How many letters and syllables are in century?
| Letters | 7: C-E-N-T-U-R-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: cen·tu·ry |
| In writing | 105 times per million words; the 1,021st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, centruy, about 100 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell century?
Century is spelled C-E-N-T-U-R-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 115 of the searches for century in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is century?
Century appears 105 times per million words in written English, the 1,021st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce century?
- UK /ˈsɛn.t͡ʃʊɹ.i/
- UK /ˈsɛnt͡ʃ.ɹi/
- US /ˈsɛn.(t)ʃ(ə.)ɹi/
Century has 3 syllables, split cen·tu·ry in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-century.ogg, En-au-century.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with century
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of century
- centuries plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does century mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A period of one hundred consecutive years; often specifically a numbered period with conventional start and end dates, e.g., the twentieth century, which stretches from (strictly) 1901 through 2000, or (informally) 1900 through 1999. The first century AD was from 1 to 100.
Holonyms: kiloannum, kiloyear, millennium < terasecond < mega-annum, megayear < petasecond < giga-annum, gigayear < exasecond < zettasecond < yottasecond < ronnasecond < quettasecond
- 2
A unit in ancient Roman army, originally of one hundred army soldiers as part of a cohort, later of more varied sizes (but typically containing sixty to seventy or eighty) soldiers or other men (guards, police, firemen), commanded by a centurion.
Holonyms: maniple, cohort, legion
- 3
A political division of ancient Rome, meeting in the Centuriate Assembly.
- 4
A hundred things of the same kind; a hundred.
- 5
A hundred runs scored either by a single player in one innings, or by two players in a partnership.
He has scored 44 limited-overs centuries.
- 6
A score of one hundred points.
That was his tenth professional century.
- 7
A race a hundred units (as meters, kilometres, miles) in length.
- 8
USinformalA banknote in the denomination of one hundred dollars.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate century?
Wiktionary records 3 abbreviations of century: c., cent, ct..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Century in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | siècle , centurie |
| German | Jahrhundert, Säkulum , Zenturie , Hunni |
| Portuguese | século , centúria |
| Spanish | centuria, siglo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does century come from?
From Middle English centurie (“a count of one hundred (of anything); a division of the Roman army; century; a division of land”), from Old French centurie, from Latin centuria, from centum (“one hundred”). The most common modern use is an ellipsis of century of years.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).