century

  • noun (pl. centuries) 1 a period of one hundred years. 2 a batsman’s score of a hundred runs in cricket. 3 a company of a hundred men in the ancient Roman army.

  — USAGE Strictly speaking, centuries run from 01 to 100, meaning that the new century begins on the first day of the year 01 (e.g. 1 January 2001). In practice and in popular perception, however, the new century is held to begin when the significant digits in the date change, e.g. on 1 January 2000, when 1999 becomes 2000.

  — ORIGIN Latin centuria, from centum ‘hundred’.

Perform another search of the Compact Oxford English Dictionary

About this dictionary
The Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English contains 145,000 words, phrases, and definitions.
Find out more about Oxford's range of English dictionaries
Sign up for the AskOxford Word of the Day

Search the Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Search the Concise Dictionary of First Names