Cent
a bronze coin of the U.S., the 100th part of a U.S. dollar: made of steel during part of 1943. Symbol: ¢.
the 100th part of the monetary units of various other nations, including Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Brunei, Canada, Ethiopia, Fiji, Guyana, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Kenya, Liberia, Mauritius, New Zealand, the Seychelles, Sierra Leone, the Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uganda.
a monetary unit of certain European Union countries, the 100th part of a euro.
sen3 .
variant of centi- before a vowel:
centare.
centigrade.
central.
centum.
century.
Contemporary Examples
Historical Examples
noun
a monetary unit of American Samoa, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Brunei, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guyana, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Micronesia, Monaco, Montenegro, Namibia, Nauru, the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, the Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Surinam, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, the United States, the Vatican City, the Virgin Islands, and Zimbabwe. It is worth one hundredth of their respective standard units
an interval of pitch between two frequencies f2 and f1 equal to 3986.31 log (f2/f1); one twelve-hundredth of the interval between two frequencies having the ratio 1:2 (an octave)
n.
late 14c., from Latin centum “hundred” (see hundred). Middle English meaning was “one hundred,” but it shifted 17c. to “hundredth part” under influence of percent. Chosen in this sense in 1786 as a name for a U.S. currency unit by Continental Congress. The word first was suggested by Robert Morris in 1782 under a different currency plan. Before the cent, Revolutionary and colonial dollars were reckoned in ninetieths, based on the exchange rate of Pennsylvania money and Spanish coin.
Related Terms
a red cent
centigrade
central
Latin centum (hundred)
century
central
see:
for two cents
not worth a dime (red cent)
put in one’s two cents
Read Also:
- Censused
an official enumeration of the population, with details as to age, sex, occupation, etc. (in ancient Rome) the registration of citizens and their property, for purposes of taxation. to take a census of (a country, city, etc.): The entire nation is censused every 10 years. noun (pl) -suses an official periodic count of a population […]
- Central
of or forming the center: the central hut in the village. in, at, or near the center: a central position. constituting something from which other related things proceed or upon which they depend: a central office. principal; chief; dominant: the play’s central character. Anatomy, Zoology. of or relating to the central nervous system. of or […]
- Centre
center. Geometry. the middle point, as the point within a circle or sphere equally distant from all points of the circumference or surface, or the point within a regular polygon equally distant from the vertices. a point, pivot, axis, etc., around which anything rotates or revolves: The sun is the center of the solar system. […]
- Cent-sign
the symbol ¢ placed after a number to indicate that the number represents cents.
- Centurial
pertaining to a century. Historical Examples adjective of or relating to a Roman century (rare) involving a period of 100 years