a contraction of the Latin centum, a hundred, is used in commerce to denote a certain rate by the hundred: thus ten per cent. profit or ten per cent. loss upon the sale of any merchandise, implies that the seller has gained or lost L1.00 on every L1.00 of the price at which he bought that merchandise. The rate is termed percentage.

Cent is also the name of a copper coin of the United States of America; equal to the hundredth part of a dollar, or rather more than a halfpenny.