Cent
/sɛnt/noun
A coin or unit equal to one-hundredth of a dollar or other basic currency unit.
Did you know?Cent ultimately comes from Latin *centum* (“hundred”), a root so powerful it also gave us words tied to counting, dividing, and measuring power in neat hundreds.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ḱm̥tóm
““Hundred””
Latin
Latin
centum
“Hundred”
Old French
Old French
cent
“Hundred”
Middle English
English
cent
“A hundredth part; later a coin worth one-hundredth of a dollar”
Modern English
English
cent
“A coin or monetary unit equal to one-hundredth of a dollar”