Centenary

How to spell centenary

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce centenary

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does centenary mean?

1. nounThe hundredth anniversary of a notable event, or its celebration.

Centenary in a sentence

• The museum marked its centenary with a year of special exhibitions.

• The town planned a parade to celebrate the centenary of the railway station.

Where does centenary come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word goes back to the Latin centenarius, meaning 'relating to a hundred', which was built on centeni, 'a hundred each', and ultimately on centum, the plain Latin word for 'hundred'. The same centum root gives English a whole family of relatives, including 'cent', 'century', 'percent' and 'centimetre', all of which carry the idea of a hundred. English adopted centenary in the seventeenth century, at first as an adjective for anything to do with a hundred, and the modern meaning of a hundredth anniversary settled in during the nineteenth century. The trap in the spelling is the unstressed middle, where 'centen-' is easy to over-double or to muddle with 'century'; remembering the buried 'cent' for a hundred keeps the single letters in place. Note that American writers often reach for 'centennial' instead, though centenary is still understood and used.

How the word is built

• centen- (from Latin centeni: a hundred each, on centum 'hundred')
• -ary (relating to)