# century

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈsɛnt͡ʃʊɹi/ · frequency rank #1,011

## Definitions
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.
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.
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.
6. A score of one hundred points.
7. A race a hundred units (as meters, kilometres, miles) in length.
8. A banknote in the denomination of one hundred dollars.

## Etymology
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 a shortening of century of years.

## Easily confused with
- **center** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/center-vs-century)
- **centre** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/centre-vs-century)
- **centers** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/centers-vs-century)
- **censure** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/censure-vs-century)
- **centaur** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/centaur-vs-century)

## Common misspellings (11)
`ccentury`, `cenntury`, `centruy`, `centtury`, `centurry`, `centuryy`, `centuyr`, `cenutry`, `cetnury`, `cnetury`, `ecntury`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/century