Centennials

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An event or celebration occurring every hundred years, often marking significant anniversaries
2. A group of people born in the same hundred-year period, particularly those celebrating their centenary
3. Referring to the 100-year anniversary of an event, institution, or milestone, often involving commemorative activities

Etymology: The plural "centennials" is simply the plural of "centennial," so the story belongs to the singular. That adjective-turned-noun was built in English from Late Latin "centennium," meaning a period of one hundred years or a century, with the English suffix "-al," which forms adjectives and nouns. The Latin base itself combines "centum," a hundred, with "annus," a year, and "centennium" came to mean a span of a hundred years. The result is a plainly formed word with no hidden myth or dramatic shift in meaning: it describes a hundredth anniversary or the event that marks one. Its sense has stayed close to its roots, which is why the word reads so transparently to anyone who knows that "cent-" means hundred.

Synonyms: hundred-year anniversaries