century plant

noun

"century-plant" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“century plant” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An agave (Agave americana) originally from Mexico but cultivated worldwide.

Corpus desk

Index EN-century-plant · century plant · English

century plant · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "C" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for century plant
PropertyValue
Headwordcentury plant
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “century plant” in English

century plantsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

century plant is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for century plant, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: So named because the plant may live for several decades before producing flowers. Once a plant flowers and produces seeds, it dies. The correct English form is century plant, spelled C-E-N-T-U-R-Y- -P-L-A-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    An agave (Agave americana) originally from Mexico but cultivated worldwide.
  2. 2
    Other plants in the genus Agave

Etymology

So named because the plant may live for several decades before producing flowers. Once a plant flowers and produces seeds, it dies.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "century plant"?
"century plant" is spelled C-E-N-T-U-R-Y- -P-L-A-N-T.
What does "century plant" mean?
As a noun, "century plant" means: An agave (Agave americana) originally from Mexico but cultivated worldwide.
What is the origin of the word "century plant"?
So named because the plant may live for several decades before producing flowers. Once a plant flowers and produces seeds, it dies. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list