Cēnt'ū-ry, n.

(sĕnt'ū-rĭ), n. [Lat. centuria, from centum, hundred.]

1. The aggregate of a hundred individual persons or things; a hundred; as, a century of sonnets. “A century send forth.” Shak.
2. A period of a hundred years. This is the most common signification of the word; and as modern computation of time begins with the birth of our Savior, the word is generally applied to some term of a hundred years subsequent to that event; as, the first or second century, or the tenth century. If it is intended to apply the word to a different era, an explanatory adjunct is used; as, the third century before the Christian era, or after the reign of Cyrus.
3. (Antiq.) A division of the Roman people for the purpose of electing magistrates and enacting laws, the people voting by centuries.

Centuries of Magdeburg, an ecclesiastical history, arranged in thirteen centuries, compiled by a great number of Protestants at Magdeburg. — Century plant (Bot.), the American aloe, or Agave Americana, formerly supposed to flower but once in a century; — hence the name.