cent

[sent] /sɛnt/
noun
1.
a bronze coin of the U.S., the 100th part of a U.S. dollar: made of steel during part of 1943. Symbol: ¢.
2.
the 100th part of the monetary units of various other nations, including Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Canada, Ethiopia, Fiji, Guyana, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Kenya, Liberia, Mauritius, New Zealand, the Seychelles, Sierra Leone, the Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uganda.
3.
a monetary unit of certain European Union countries, the 100th part of a euro.
4.
sen3 .
Origin
1325-75; Middle English < Latin centēsimus hundredth (by shortening), equivalent to cent(um) 100 (see hundred) + -ēsimus ordinal suffix
Can be confused
cents, scents, sense.

cent-

1.
variant of centi- before a vowel:
centare.

cent.

1.
centigrade.
2.
central.
3.
centum.
4.
century.
Examples from the web for cent
  • It sounds too good to be true: you can go solar without paying a cent.
  • In our net pens, the fish only take up three per cent of the pen volume.
  • Before you spent a single cent on a project, you should simulate its chance of success.
  • If his scheme fails, the public purse has lost hardly a cent.
  • Half cent a kwh nuclear fusion will be perfected long before.
  • Now you can find out what the fuss is about without spending a cent.
  • The probability of that happening without manipulation is one-tenth of one per cent.
  • All those billions go straight to the tax base and stay there, long before the drillers have a chance to make a cent.
  • It is that last five per cent that includes their conclusions that has absolutely no evidence.
  • They will never spend a cent for family planning, they want hoards of unwanted children for exploitation.
British Dictionary definitions for cent

cent

/sɛnt/
noun
1.
a monetary unit of American Samoa, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Brunei, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guyana, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Micronesia, Monaco, Montenegro, Namibia, Nauru, the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, the Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Surinam, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, the United States, the Vatican City, the Virgin Islands, and Zimbabwe. It is worth one hundredth of their respective standard units
2.
an interval of pitch between two frequencies f2 and f1 equal to 3986.31 log (f2/f1); one twelve-hundredth of the interval between two frequencies having the ratio 1:2 (an octave)
Word Origin
C16: from Latin centēsimus hundredth, from centum hundred
Word Origin and History for cent
n.

late 14c., from Latin centum "hundred" (see hundred). Middle English meaning was "one hundred," but it shifted 17c. to "hundredth part" under influence of percent. Chosen in this sense in 1786 as a name for a U.S. currency unit by Continental Congress. The word first was suggested by Robert Morris in 1782 under a different currency plan. Before the cent, Revolutionary and colonial dollars were reckoned in ninetieths, based on the exchange rate of Pennsylvania money and Spanish coin.

Slang definitions & phrases for cent

cent

Related Terms

a red cent


Related Abbreviations for cent

cent.

  1. centigrade
  2. central
  3. Latin centum (hundred)
  4. century

Cent.

central
Idioms and Phrases with cent

cent

see: