Cent

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /sɛnt/

Definitions

1. A monetary unit equal to one hundredth of a basic currency like a dollar ; a small coin issued to represent this value ; a measure of land area equal to one percent of an acre
2. A fractional monetary denomination worth 1/100 of a primary currency unit ; a coin bearing this small value used in transactions ; a land measurement representing one hundredth part of an acre
3. A fractional unit of money used in various currencies, valued at one percent of the main unit ; a coin corresponding to this denomination ; a standard land area measure amounting to one one-hundredth of an acre

Etymology: The coin's name is a hundred-part idea older than the coin itself. Latin "centum" meant "hundred," and the English word arrived through Old French "cent" in the Middle English period, when it was simply a fraction or hundredth of a larger unit. The same Latin stem gives us "century," "centipede," and "percent," all built on the notion of counting in hundreds. The word's core sense has not changed: a cent is one hundredth of a dollar, euro, or similar unit. What changed is the thing being divided. Many currencies once used a "cent" as a subdivision, and the name spread with them, so a single Latin number ended up labeling small change across much of the world.

Synonyms: penny, coin, currency, dime, nickel