/ ˈsentʃəri; NAmE / noun ( pl. -ies )
1.
a period of 100 years
2.
( abbr. c , cent. ) any of the periods of 100 years before or after the birth of Christ :
the 20th century (= AD1901–2000 or 1900–1999)
eighteenth-century writers
3.
( in cricket ) a score of 100 runs by one player
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IDIOMS
see turn noun
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WORD ORIGIN
late Middle English originally referring to a company in the ancient Roman army, of a hundred men: from Latin centuria , from centum hundred. Sense 1 dates from the early 17th cent.