Meaning of century in English

century

noun [ C ]

/ˈsen.tʃər.i/ uk

/ˈsen.tʃər.i/

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a period of 100 years:

The city center has scarcely changed in over a century.

This sculpture must be centuries old.

Her medical career spanned half a century.

Compare

millennium

a period of 100 years counted from what is believed to be the year of the birth of Jesus Christ:

Rome was founded in the eighth century B.C. (= before Christ).

He's an expert on 15th-century Italian art.

a score of 100 runs (= points) in cricket:

Both captains scored centuries.

His third Test century came from only 135 balls.

the turn of the century

the time when one century ends and another begins:

The museum reopened at the turn of the century.

More examplesFewer examples

Life in the 19th century was very different from what it is now.
Peru was colonized by the Spanish in the 16th century.
She was probably the most highly educated prime minister of this century.
For centuries, Native Americans traded with European settlers.
For more than half a century, the reassuring tones of BBC newscasters have informed British television viewers about world events.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Decades, centuries & the millennium

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Cricket

(Definition of century from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

century | Intermediate English

century

noun [ C ]

/ˈsen·tʃə·ri/

Add to word list Add to word list

a period of 100 years:

Her medical career spanned half a century.

A century is also a particular period of 100 years:

the fourth century B.C.

His music was influential in the 19th and 20th centuries.

(Definition of century from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of century

century

This is the reality of sharing information online in the 21st century.

From TIME

You're talking here about some of the problems of being a dog in the 21st century.

From NPR

Even more amazing, the basic physics of fluid flow was worked out way back in the 19th century.

From Ars Technica

That's been true for well over a century -- unrivaled staying power for an industrial-age, pistons-and-brute-force machine in an era so dominated by silicon and software.

From The Atlantic

The employment rate of this group has fallen 10 percentage points just this century, and it has triggered a cultural, economic, and social decline.

From The Atlantic

We have brought social entrepreneurs to a powerful platform where all sectors of society can work together to tackle the major challenges of our century.

From Huffington Post

And yet in the coming century, these or other black swans will seem to occur with surprising frequency.

From Slate Magazine

There are centuries of folklore detailing how mankind has been forced to defend itself against these lethal parasites.

From Los Angeles Times

In the process, they set in motion one of the essential musical movements of the 20th century.

From NPR

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with century

century

These are words often used in combination with century.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

century of neglect

Those of us who may feel frustration at so little progress after a century of neglect, in no sense direct that frustration at him.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

coming century

The book is well worth reading, providing as it does plenty of ideas for new lines of research in the coming century.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

ensuing centuries

The building changed hands several times over the ensuing centuries.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

See all collocations with century

What is the pronunciation of century?

Translations of century

in Chinese (Traditional)

一百年, 世紀, （板球）100分…

in Chinese (Simplified)

一百年, 世纪, （板球）100分…

in Spanish

siglo, en el juego de cricket, cien puntos…

in Portuguese

século, século [masculine]…

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शतक…

世紀, 世紀（せいき）, 100年（ねん）…

yüzyıl, asır, yüz sayı…

siècle [masculine], siècle, cent courses…

segle…

eeuw, century…

100 வருட காலம், இயேசு கிறிஸ்துவின் பிறந்த ஆண்டு என்று நம்பப்படும் ஆண்டிலிருந்து 100 ஆண்டுகளின் கணக்கீட்டிற்கு எடுத்துக்கொள்ளப்படும் ஒரு காலம், கிரிக்கெட்டில் 100 ரன்கள்…

सदी, शताब्दी, ईसा मसीह के जन्म वर्ष से गणना की जाने वाली 100 साल की अवधि…

શતાબ્દી, સદી, ઇસુ ખ્રિસ્તનાં જન્મનાં માનવામાં આવતાં વર્ષ પછીથી ગણવામાં આવતો ૧૦૦ વર્ષનો સમયગાળો.…

århundrede, hundredår, hundrede point…

sekel, hundra poäng…

kurun, seratus larian…

das Jahrhundert, 100 Läufe…

århundre [neuter], hundre år [neuter, plural]…

صدی, سو سال (سو سال کے عرصہ کا شمار اس دن سے کیا جاتا ہے جس دن ممکنہ طور پر حضرت عیسیٰ کی پیدائش ہوئی تھی), 100رن (کرکٹ کے کھیل میں 100 رنوں کا ایک اسکور ہوتا ہے)…

століття, сто очків…

век…

శతాబ్దం, క్రీస్తు జన్మ సంవత్సరం నుండి ఒక శతాబ్ద కాలం, క్రికెట్ లో వంద రన్ల స్కోర్…

قَرْن…

একশ বছর সময়, শতবর্ষ, খ্রিস্টাব্দ…

století, stovka…