century

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A period of 100 years.
2. n. Each of the successive periods of 100 years before or since the advent of the Christian era.
3. n. A unit of the Roman army originally consisting of 100 men.
4. n. One of the 193 electoral divisions of the Roman people.
5. n. A group of 100 things.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In a general sense, a hundred; anything consisting of a hundred in number.
2. n. Specifically In Rom. antiq.:
3. n. A division of the people (originally so called, probably, with reference to the approximate number of its members, though there was no fixed limit), instituted by Servius Tullius, formed with reference to taxation and to the election of magistrates and enactment of laws. All the citizens were divided into classes according to their wealth, and each of the classes was divided into from 10 to 40 senior aud junior centuries, according to age, in all 193 or 194. Each century had one vote in the comitia centuriata, the wealthier classes voting first and generally controlling the others.
4. n. A subdivision of the legion, corresponding to a modern military company of infantry, and consisting nominally of a hundred men. Prior to the rule of Marius the century was half of a maniple, and contained normally 100 men, each century having in addition 20 light-armed troops. After the military reform of Marius the old distinctions of arms in the legion were abolished; the century was still the half of the maniple, but its normal quota of men was increased. Under the empire the regular force of the century was 110 men. See legion.
5. n. An allotment of land of varying size; especially, the area of land allotted to soldiers in a conquered country.
6. n. A period of one hundred years, reckoned from any starting-point: as, a century of national independence; a century of oppression. Specifically, one of a number of hundred-year periods, reckoned either forward or backward from some recognized era. Thus the first century of the Christian era began with the year a. d. 1 and extended to the end of the year 100; the third century began with 201 and ended with 300; and the eighteenth century began with 1701 and ended with 1800, the year completing the hundred-year period in each instance giving name to the century. When used absolutely, without explanatory adjunct of any kind, the centuries of the Christian era are always meant. The centuries before Christ are reckoned backward in their order from the Christian era, and those after Christ are reckoned forward: as, the fourth century b. c. (from 301 b. c. backward to 400).
7. n. An obsolete form of centaury.
8. n. In botany, a set of dried plants containing a hundred sheets.

Wiktionary

1. n. A period of 100 consecutive years; often specifically a numbered period with conventional start and end dates, e.g., the twentieth century, which stretches from (strictly) 1901 through 2000, or (informally) 1900 through 1999. The first century AD was from 1 to 100; a yearhundred.
2. n. A unit in ancient Roman, originally of 100 army soldiers as part of a cohort, later of more varied sizes (but typically containing 60 to 70 or 80) soldiers or other men (guards, police, firemen), commanded by a centurion.
3. n. A political division of ancient Rome, meeting in the Centuriate Assembly.
4. n. archaic A hundred things; a hundred.
5. n. cricket A hundred runs scored either by a single player in one innings, or by two players in a partnership.
6. n. US, cycling A ride 100 miles in length.
7. n. US, informal A banknote in the denomination of one hundred dollars.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Archaic. A hundred; ; an aggregate of a hundred things.
2. n. A period of a hundred years.
3. n. A division of the Roman people formed according to their property, for the purpose of voting for civil officers.
4. n. One of sixty companies into which a legion of the army was divided. It was Commanded by a centurion.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a period of 100 years
2. n. ten 10s