Cen"tu*ry (?), n.;
pl. Centuries (#). [L.
centuria (in senses 1 & 3), fr. centum a hundred: cf. F. centurie. See Cent.]
1. A hundred; as,
a century of sonnets; an aggregate of a hundred things. [Archaic.]
And
on it said a century of prayers.
Shak.
2. A period of a hundred years; as, this event took place over two centuries ago.
&fist; Century, in the reckoning of time, although often used in a general
way of any series of hundred consecutive
years (as, a century of temperance work), usually
signifies a division of the Christian era, consisting of a period of one hundred years ending with the hundredth year from which it
is named; as, the first century (a. d. 1-100 inclusive); the seventh century (a.d. 601- 700); the eighteenth century
(a.d. 1701- 1800). With words or phrases connecting it with some
other system of chronology it is used of similar division of those eras; as, the first century of Rome (A.U.C. 1-100).
3. (Rom. Antiq.)
(a) A division of the Roman people formed according to their property, for the purpose of voting for civil officers. (b) One of sixty companies into which a
legion of the army was
divided. It was Commanded by a
centurion.
Century plant (Bot.), the Agave Americana, formerly
supposed to flower but once in a century; -- hence the name. See Agave. -- The Magdeburg Centuries, an
ecclesiastical history of the first thirteen centuries, arranged in
thirteen volumes, compiled in
the 16th century by Protestant scholars at Magdeburg.
Hear it pronounced