Acentury is a period of 100years or 10decades. Centuries are numberedordinally in English and many other languages. The wordcentury comes from theLatincentum, meaningone hundred.Century is sometimes abbreviated asc.[1]
Acentennial or centenary is a hundredth anniversary, or a celebration of this, typically the remembrance of an event which took place a hundred years earlier.
Although a century can mean any arbitrary period of 100years, there are two viewpoints on the nature of standard centuries. One is based on strict construction, while the other is based on popular perception.
According to the strict construction, the 1st centuryAD, which began withAD 1, ended withAD 100, and the 2nd century with AD200;[note 1] in this model, then-th century starts with a year that follows a year with a multiple of 100 (except the first century as it began after the year1 BC) and ends with the next coming year with a multiple of 100 (100n), i.e. the 20th century comprises the years1901 to2000, and the 21st century comprises the years2001 to2100 in strict usage.[2]
In common perception and practice, centuries are structured by grouping years based on sharing the 'hundreds' digit(s). In this model, then-th century starts with the year that ends in "00" and ends with the year ending in "99";[3] for example, inpopular culture, the years1900 to1999 constitute the 20th century, and the years2000 to2099 constitute the 21st century.[4] (This is similar to the grouping of"0-to-9 decades" which share the 'tens' digit.)
To facilitate calendrical calculations by computer, theastronomical year numbering andISO 8601 systems both contain ayear zero, with the astronomical year 0 corresponding to the year 1 BC, the astronomical year -1 corresponding to 2 BC, and so on.[5][6]
Informally, years may be referred to in groups based on the hundreds part of the year. In this system, the years 1900–1999 are referred to as thenineteen hundreds (1900s). Aside from English usage, this system is used inSwedish,Danish,Norwegian,Icelandic,Finnish andHungarian. The Swedishnittonhundratalet (or1900-talet), Danishnittenhundredetallet (ornittenhundredetallet), Norwegiannittenhundretallet (or1900-tallet),[7] Finnishtuhatyhdeksänsataaluku (or1900-luku) and Hungarianezerkilencszázas évek (or1900-as évek) refer unambiguously to the years 1900–1999. In Swedish, however, a century is in more rare cases referred to asdet n-te seklet/århundradet ("the n-th century") rather thann-hundratalet, i.e. the 17th century is (in rare cases) referred to as17:(d)e/sjuttonde århundradet/seklet rather than1600-talet and mainly also referring to the years 1601–1700 rather than 1600–1699;[8] according toSvenska Akademiens ordbok,16:(d)e/sextonde århundradet may refer to either the years 1501–1600 or 1500–1599.[9]
Italian also has a similar system, but it only expresses the hundreds and omits the word for 'thousand'. This system mainly functions from the 11th to the 20th century:
ilQuattrocento (that is 'the four hundred', the 15th century)
ilCinquecento (that is 'the five hundred', the 16th century).
These terms are often used in other languages when referring to thehistory of Italy.
While the century has been commonly used in the West, other cultures and calendars have utilized differently sized groups of years in a similar manner. TheHindu calendar, in particular, summarizes its years into groups of 60,[10] while theAztec calendar considers groups of 52.[11]
^AD andCE year numbering, which are numerically equivalent, are now commonly used to number years, including those which occurred before these notations were invented; AD did not become widespread in Europe until early in the 2nd millennium.
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