in a general sense, anything divided into, or consisting of, a hundred parts; also a period of 100 years. In the modern computation of time from the incarnation of Christ, the word is used in a particular sense to denote some term of a hundred years subsequent to that event; as the first century, the second century, &c.

in Antiquity, a division of the Roman people for the purpose of electing magistrates, enacting laws, or deliberating upon any public affair. They 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.