cent
Pluralcents, cent
- 1A unit of money equal to one hundredth of the main currency unit in many countries, including the euro; in dollars, symbol ¢.
Gas prices rose by a cent per gallon last week.
The company's shares fell six cents in afternoon trading.
UsageThe plural is usually cents, but before a noun it stays singular: a five-cent stamp.
Note
Latin centum, "hundred," sits inside the name, which came into English through Old French and Middle English cent. A cent is defined by how many make up the main unit, not by what it buys. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver made the joke in 2015: making one cent costs 1.7 cents.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Latin centum means hundred. en.wiktionary.org
- English cent derives through Middle English and Old French from Latin centum. en.wiktionary.org
- A cent is defined as a fraction of the main currency unit, independently of purchasing power. en.wikipedia.org
- Last Week Tonight with John Oliver made the stated joke in 2015. en.wiktionary.org
- The joke stated that making one cent costs 1.7 cents. en.wiktionary.org
- 2Short for centum: one hundred, surviving mainly in the phrase per cent.
And broght with hem many stout cent / Of green lordynges.
c. 1450, Octouian Imperator (Octavian), lines 1463-4The demon makes his full descent / In one abundant shower of cent per cent.
1733, Alexander Pope, Moral EssaysNote
The bare "hundred" behind the coin could once stand on its own. The romance Octouian Imperator, composed in the fourteenth century and copied around 1450, has lords arriving "many stout cent," by the hundred. Outside per cent and cent per cent it is now obsolete. Alexander Pope's Epistle to Bathurst (1733), one of his Moral Essays, shows the second phrase as a profit of a hundred per cent: "one abundant shower of cent per cent."
- 3A coin with a face value of one cent, in any of the currencies that use cents.
She sorted the jar of loose change, setting every cent aside to roll up later.
Collectors will pay hundreds of dollars for a cent from a rare year in good condition.
UsageIn the US and Canada, the one-cent coin is usually called a penny.
Similarpenny
Note
The object rather than the amount. A cent in this sense can be bent, rejected by a machine or collected, and it covers the coin of any currency divided into hundredths of its main unit. The difference shows in grammar. "Shares fell six cents" measures a sum, but "a bent cent" points at a coin you can hold. Only the second can be dated, minted or kept in a drawer.
- 4A small sum of money.
The repairs didn't cost us a cent thanks to the warranty.
He vowed never to give that company another cent of his money.
UsageUsually in negatives or with every: not cost a cent, every last cent.
Note
Here the coin stops being counted and becomes a measure of all someone has. Lou Sullivan's From Female to Male (1990) uses it this way: every cent beyond the barest living went to down-and-out friends.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Lou Sullivan wrote From Female to Male, published in 1990. en.wikipedia.org
- The wording is a paraphrase. Wiktionary transcribes the sentence differently and locates it on page 10. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 5A unit for measuring musical pitch, equal to one hundredth of a semitone or half step.
The tuner app showed the note was twelve cents sharp.
A difference of a single cent is far too small for most listeners to hear.
UsageTo describe tuning, put a number before cents sharp or cents flat: ten cents flat.
Note
Musicians borrowed the word for the same reason as the money sense: it means a hundredth. Twelve semitones make an octave, so an octave is 1,200 cents, and the unit lets tunings be compared in fine, even steps.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- A musical cent is one hundredth of a semitone. en.wiktionary.org
- Twelve semitones make an octave, which therefore contains 1,200 cents. en.wikipedia.org
- Cents provide equal, fine divisions for comparing musical tunings. en.wikipedia.org
- 6Short for century: a period of one hundred years, written after a number in dates such as "15th cent."
The catalog dates the manuscript to the late 15th cent. based on its handwriting.
The exhibit included a bronze mirror from the 3rd cent. BCE.
UsageFollows an ordinal number and usually takes a period: 15th cent.
- 7Short for centigrade: on the Celsius temperature scale, written after a temperature, mostly in older texts.
A 1950s weather log records a high of 35° cent. for the city that July.
In the old lab notebook, the bath temperature is written as 37° cent. on every page.
Note
A shorthand of older weather and laboratory writing, placed after the degree sign, as in 37° cent. Centigrade means having a hundred divisions between two fixed points, here the freezing and boiling of water, and it names the same scale as Celsius. Since the scale was officially renamed Celsius in 1948, the short form C has largely taken its place.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Centigrade means having a hundred divisions between two fixed points. en.wiktionary.org
- The centigrade temperature scale has a hundred divisions between water's freezing and boiling points. gutenberg.org
- Centigrade and Celsius name the same temperature scale. gutenberg.org
- Celsius was officially adopted in place of centigrade in 1948. bipm.org
- 8Abbreviation of center: used in addresses, signs, and place names where space is short.
- 9A unit of nuclear reactor reactivity equal to one hundredth of a dollar, the dollar here being a reactivity unit rather than money.
Practice
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Origin
Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥tóm lies behind Latin centum ("hundred"), which passed into Old French as cent and then into Middle English as cent.