cent

¹

[ sent ]

noun

1. one 100th of the dollar, or other basic monetary unit, of various nations, including the United States. : ¢, c
2. penny ( def 1 ):

   Sorry, I’ve only got two dimes, a nickel, and four cents.

3. a monetary unit of certain European Union countries, one 100th of a euro.

cent-

²

1. variant of centi- before a vowel:

   centare.

cent.

³

abbreviation for

1. centigrade.
2. central.
3. centum.
4. century.

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 f 2 and f 1 equal to 3986.31 log ( f 2 / f 1 ); one twelve-hundredth of the interval between two frequencies having the ratio 1:2 (an octave)

Word History and Origins

Origin of cent¹

First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English, from Latin centēsimus “hundredth” (by shortening), equivalent to cent(um) “100” ( hundred ) + -ēsimus ordinal suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of cent¹

C16: from Latin centēsimus hundredth, from centum hundred

Idioms and Phrases

see for two cents ; not worth a dime (red cent) ; put in one's two cents .

Example Sentences

For customers frustrated by shrinkflation, Tropicana says the new bottles will cost about 70 cents less than their predecessors, though not all retailers have adjusted prices yet.

From Salon

This combination of speech and brain activity data achieved an impressive 97.53 per cent accuracy in diagnosing depression, significantly outperforming alternative methods.

From Science Daily

After six weeks, the researchers observed a drop in IL 8 levels of 53 per cent, and this effect increased by 63 per cent after another 12 weeks.

From Science Daily

While the vast majority of cells appeared normal, nearly all of the women harboured a small number of breast cells -- about 3 per cent -- that carried genetic alterations commonly associated with cancer.

From Science Daily

The actual Dole banana taped to the wall of Sotheby’s on Wednesday evening was bought earlier in the day from a nearby fruit stand on the Upper East Side of Manhattan for 35 cents.

From New York Times