CENTURY

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Ten 10s

Synonyms:

100; C; century; hundred; one C

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Hypernyms ("century" is a kind of...):

large integer (an integer equal to or greater than ten)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A period of 100 years

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Hypernyms ("century" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

Meronyms (parts of "century"):

decade; decennary; decennium (a period of 10 years)

half-century (a period of 50 years)

quarter-century (a period of 25 years)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "century"):

quattrocento (the 15th century in Italian art and literature)

twentieth century (the century from 1901 to 2000)

Holonyms ("century" is a part of...):

millenary; millennium (a span of 1000 years)

Credits

Context examples:

Any personal suffering seemed to me to be better than to bring public shame upon a family which has held an untarnished record through so many centuries.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For more than a century, scientists have explored the role of sleep in storing memories.

(The brain may actively forget during dream sleep, National Institutes of Health)

During March, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.53°F (0.85°C) above the 20th century average.

(March 2015 and first quarter of year warmest on record, NOAA)

During the 9th century however, there was a major political collapse in the central Maya region: their famous limestone cities were abandoned and dynasties ended.

(Scientists measure severity of drought during the Maya collapse, University of Cambridge)

Famously, species of tit learned how to pierce milk bottle lids and siphon the cream during the middle of last century – a phenomenon that spread rapidly through flocks across the UK.

(Birds learn from each other’s ‘disgust’, enabling insects to evolve bright colours, University of Cambridge)

They're tracking how marsh plants grow in a world with carbon dioxide levels nearly twice as high as today — levels we could see by the end of the century.

(High carbon dioxide can create 'shrinking stems' in marshes, National Science Foundation)

Rice grown while exposed to carbon dioxide levels expected by the end of this century had lower levels of vitamins, minerals and protein than normal, the results showed.

(Planet-Warming Gases Make Some Food Less Nutritious, Study Says, Steve Baragona/VOA)

For centuries the Wild had stood for terror and destruction.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

What have the people been about, who have been the busiest in getting money, and in getting power, this century or two?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Long-lived trees, such as pines from high elevations and other conifers found across the high-northern latitude boreal forests, can store carbon for many centuries.