Hundred
nounThe number equal to ten times ten; 100.
How to spell hundred
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce hundred
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does hundred mean?
- nounThe number equal to ten times ten; 100.
Hundred in a sentence
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The charity raised over a hundred pounds at the weekend sale.
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She ran a hundred metres in under fifteen seconds.
Where does hundred come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is a native Germanic word, descending from Old English 'hundred', which combined the older element 'hund', meaning the number hundred, with '-red', a suffix related to 'rath', meaning a count or reckoning. The first part traces back to Proto-Indo-European roots that also gave Latin 'centum' and Greek 'hekaton', both meaning a hundred, which is why those distant cousins look so different yet mean the same thing. In Old English a 'hundred' could also be an administrative district, a division of a shire notionally able to supply a hundred fighting men, a sense that survived in English place names for centuries. The spelling has stayed remarkably steady, and the common modern slip is to write 'hundered' or 'hunderd', mishearing the cluster '-dred', so it helps to remember the 'd' and 'r' sit together as in 'dread'.
How the word is built
- hund- (from Proto-Germanic 'hund', meaning hundred)
- -red (from 'rath', meaning count or reckoning)
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