Okuzeka
History vocabulary · Periods and Eras

Century

Meaning in history, with examples

/ˈsentʃəri/nounCore term

In history, century means: A period of one hundred years; in history, usually one of the numbered hundred-year blocks of the calendar, such as the sixteenth century.

In Turkish: yüzyıl, asır

How it is used

Written as the 16th century or the sixteenth century, with the and an ordinal number. Before a noun it takes a hyphen: a sixteenth-century map. People also say the 1500s for the same years. Common phrases: in the early, mid- or late 16th century, at the turn of the century.

Example sentences

  1. The mosque was built in the late sixteenth century.

  2. This is a rare seventeenth-century copy of the text.

Common collocations

  • the turn of the century
  • the late 16th century
  • a sixteenth-century map
  • over the centuries
  • centuries-old
  • eraA long and distinct stage of history, usually marked by an important event, ruler or change, such as the Victorian era or the Cold War era.
  • periodA length of time in history that historians treat as a unit because it has its own typical features, such as the Tudor period or the Tanzimat period.
  • chronologyThe order in which events happened, or a list or table that sets out events and their dates in that order.
  • BCShort for 'before Christ': written after a year to show that it comes before the traditional starting point of the Western calendar, as in 500 BC.
  • ADShort for the Latin 'Anno Domini' ('in the year of the Lord'): used with years of the Western calendar counted from the traditional date of Christ's birth.

More terms: Periods and Eras

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