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centum

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centum¹

  • /ˈkɛntəm/
  • /ˈsɛntəm/ proscribed

Rhymes with -ɛntəm

Where it comes from

Learned borrowing from Latin centum (“hundred”), attested at least since 1890s. Its use in linguistics is due to it being a canonical example of a word retaining an original velar stop, as opposed to Avestan 𐬯𐬀𐬙𐬆𐬨 (satəm). Doublet of hundred and satem.

adjective Centum

  1. Indo European studies, not comparable Referring to an Indo-European language that did not produce sibilants from a series of Proto-Indo-European palatovelar stops. Table 10.1 shows the relative chronology of centum and satem entries to the west. Along each trajectory, centum languages precede satem languages, and the frontier languages, thos most clearly showing peripheral type shift, are centum.

    Opposite: satem

centum²

  • /ˈsɛntəm/

Where it comes from

Calque of Sanskrit शतक (śataka, “a hundred; a satakam”). The latter meaning is attested at least since 1991 and is explained by 100-point academic grading in India.

noun centums · Centum

  1. Satakam, set of one hundred verses connected by the same metre or topic. Tonda-mandala-sātacam, a centum of verses on the Conjeveram country, No. 148, C. M. 73. The sātacam is a poem of one hundred stanzas, in its appropriate metre.
  2. India Perfect score on a board examination. Achyuta Satakam is a centum in Prakrit Language; Devanayaka Panchasat (the fifty on Devanayaka), in sanskrit and several poetical works in Tamil.

Centum³

adjective

  1. not comparable Alternative letter-case form of centum

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MLA

"centum." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/centum. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

centum. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/centum

Chicago

"centum." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/centum.

BibTeX
@misc{centum_2026,
  title = {centum},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/centum},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}