in a general sense, any thing divided into, or consisting of, a hundred parts.

in Antiquity. The Roman people, when they were assembled for electing magistrates, enacting laws, or deliberating upon any public affair, were always divided into centuries, and voted by centuries, in order that their votes might be the more easily collected, and hence these assemblies were called comitia centuriata. The Roman cohorts were also divided into centuries.

in Chronology, the space of a hundred years. This method of computing by centuries is generally observed in church history, commencing from the time of our Saviour's incarnation.