/ ˈhʌndrəd; NAmE / number ( plural verb )
1.
100 :
One hundred (of the children) have already been placed with foster families.
There were just a hundred of them there.
This vase is worth several hundred dollars.
She must be over a hundred (= a hundred years old) .
Hundreds of thousands of people are at risk.
a hundred-year lease
HELP NOTE : You say a, one, two, several, etc. hundred without a final 's' on 'hundred'. Hundreds (of ... ) can be used if there is no number or quantity before it. Always use a plural verb with hundred or hundreds , except when an amount of money is mentioned:
Four hundred (people) are expected to attend.
Two hundred (pounds) was withdrawn from the account.
2.
a hundred or hundreds (of ... ) (usually informal ) a large amount :
hundreds of miles away
for hundreds of years
If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times.
I have a hundred and one things to do.
( formal )
Men died in their hundreds.
3.
the hundreds [ pl. ] the numbers from 100 to 999 :
We're talking about a figure in the low hundreds.
4.
the ... hundreds [ pl. ] the years of a particular century :
the early nineteen hundreds (= written 'early 1900s')
5.
one, two, three, etc. ~ hours used to express whole hours in the 24-hour system :
twelve hundred hours (= 12.00, midday)
•
IDIOMS
- a / one hundred per cent
- give a hundred (and ten) per cent
—more at ninety
••
WORD ORIGIN
late Old English , from hund hundred (from an Indo-European root shared with Latin centum and Greek hekaton ) + a second element meaning number ; of Germanic origin and related to Dutch honderd and German hundert .