century

Everyday

1. A century is a period of one hundred years. tree →
2. A century also means one of the hundred-year periods counted in history, such as «the twenty-first century» (the one we live in now). tree →
3. In cricket a century is a score of one hundred runs by one player. tree →

In the lessons

In maths a century is 100 years: 2 centuries = 200 years, half a century = 50 years. In history lessons centuries help to say when things happened, like the century when cars were invented. In sport (cricket in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland) a batter who scores 100 runs makes a century. Phrases: a century ago, for centuries, the turn of the century.

Examples

• A century is one hundred years. tree →
• This old oak tree has stood here for more than a century. tree →
• Castles were built many centuries ago. tree →
• Half a century is fifty years. tree →
• People have played football for centuries. tree →
• The batter scored a century in the cricket match. tree →
• In which century were trains invented? tree →
• A turtle can live for about a century. tree →
• But that century passed, and no one freed me. tree →

Note

Plural: centuries (y → ies). The word comes from the Latin for «hundred», like «cent» and «centimetre». Trap: the century number is one more than the hundreds of the years — years beginning «19..» belong to the twentieth century. In maths problems: 1 century = 100 years = 10 decades.

In Jewish tradition

In maths a century is 100 years: 2 centuries = 200 years, half a century = 50 years. In history lessons centuries help to say when things happened, like the century when cars were invented. In sport (cricket in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland) a batter who scores 100 runs makes a century. Phrases: a century ago, for centuries, the turn of the century.

Examples

• Commentaries by Judah Halevi, and by Eben Ezra, of the 12th century, are also known. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
• But Isaac Myer states that there are un- doubted traces of pointing in Hebrew MSS. of the second century. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
• Hence this book was known already in the second or at the beginning of the third century of the Christian Era. (Sefer Yetzirah, Kalisch 1877) tree →

Note

Plural: centuries (y → ies). The word comes from the Latin for «hundred», like «cent» and «centimetre». Trap: the century number is one more than the hundreds of the years — years beginning «19..» belong to the twentieth century. In maths problems: 1 century = 100 years = 10 decades.