All Topics  
Century

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Century
 
 
  Topics Century Topic Home

A century (from the Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 centum, meaning one hundred) is one hundred consecutive year
Year

A year is the time between two recurrences of an event related to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. By extension, this can be applied to any planet: for example, a "Martian year" is the time in which Mars completes its own orbit....
s. Centuries are numbered ordinally
Names of numbers in English

English numerals are words for numbers used in English language cultures.Cardinal numbersCardinal number s refer to the size of a group....
 in English and many other languages (e.g. "the seventh century AD").

rding to the Gregorian calendar
Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was first proposed by the Calabrian doctor Aloysius Lilius, and decreed by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom it was named, on 24 February 1582 by the papal bull Inter gravissimas....
, the 1st century
1st century

The 1st century was the century that lasted from 1 to 100 according the Julian calendar. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or History by period...
 AD started on January 1, 1
1

Year 1 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar.The preceding year is 1 BC in the widely used Gregorian calendar or in its predecessor, the Julian calendar, neither of which has a "Year zero"....
 and ended on December 31, 100
100

Year 100 was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar....
. The 2nd century
2nd century

The 2nd century is the period from 101 to 200 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era/Common Era. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or History by period...
 started at year 101
101

Events...
, the third
3rd century

The 3rd century is the period from 201 to 300 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era/Common Era.In this century, the Roman Empire sees a Crisis of the Third Century, marking the beginning of Late Antiquity....
 at 201
201

Events...
, etc. The n-th century started/will start on the year 100×n - 99.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Century'
Start a new discussion about 'Century'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


A century (from the Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 centum, meaning one hundred) is one hundred consecutive year
Year

A year is the time between two recurrences of an event related to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. By extension, this can be applied to any planet: for example, a "Martian year" is the time in which Mars completes its own orbit....
s. Centuries are numbered ordinally
Names of numbers in English

English numerals are words for numbers used in English language cultures.Cardinal numbersCardinal number s refer to the size of a group....
 in English and many other languages (e.g. "the seventh century AD").

Start and end in the Gregorian Calendar

According to the Gregorian calendar
Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was first proposed by the Calabrian doctor Aloysius Lilius, and decreed by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom it was named, on 24 February 1582 by the papal bull Inter gravissimas....
, the 1st century
1st century

The 1st century was the century that lasted from 1 to 100 according the Julian calendar. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or History by period...
 AD started on January 1, 1
1

Year 1 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar.The preceding year is 1 BC in the widely used Gregorian calendar or in its predecessor, the Julian calendar, neither of which has a "Year zero"....
 and ended on December 31, 100
100

Year 100 was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar....
. The 2nd century
2nd century

The 2nd century is the period from 101 to 200 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era/Common Era. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or History by period...
 started at year 101
101

Events...
, the third
3rd century

The 3rd century is the period from 201 to 300 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era/Common Era.In this century, the Roman Empire sees a Crisis of the Third Century, marking the beginning of Late Antiquity....
 at 201
201

Events...
, etc. The n-th century started/will start on the year 100×n - 99. A century will only include one year, the centennial year, that starts with the century's number (e.g. 1900
1900

Year 1900 was an Leap year#Leap year rules common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, but a leap year starting on Saturdayof the Julian calendar....
 is the final year in the 19th century
19th century

The 19th century began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar.During the 19th century, the Spanish Empire, Portuguese Empire, Late Imperial China, and Ottoman Empire empires began to crumble, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, and the Mughal Empire empire collapsed....
).

End of the 20th century
It is commonly-held misconception that the 20th century
20th century

The twentieth century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000, according to the Gregorian calendar. The century saw a remarkable shift in the way that vast numbers of people lived, as a result of technological, medical, social, ideological, and political innovation....
 ended on December 31, 1999. The 20th century actually ended on December 31, 2000, its centennial year.

1st century AD and BC
There is no "zeroth century" in between the first century BC and the first century AD. Also, there is no 0 A.D. The Gregorian calendar "jumps" from 1B.C. to 1 A.D. The first century BC includes the years 100 BC to 1 BC. Other centuries BC follow the same pattern.

Dating units in other calendar systems

Besides the Gregorian calendar, the Julian calendar
Julian calendar

The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, and came into force in 45 BC . It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year, known at least since Hipparchus....
 and the Hindu calendar
Hindu calendar

The Hindu calendar used in ancient times has undergone many changes in the process of regionalization, and today there are several regional Indian calendars, as well as an Indian national calendar....
 have cycles of years which are used to delineate whole time periods; the Hindu calendar, in particular, summarizes its years into groups of 60.

Centuries in Astronomical Year Numbering

Astronomical year numbering
Astronomical year numbering

Astronomical year numbering is based on AD /CE year numbering, but follows normal decimal integer numbering more strictly. Thus, it has a year zero, the years before that are designated with negative numbers and the years after that are designated with positive numbers....
, used by astronomers, includes a year zero (0). Consequently, the first century in these calendars may designate the years 0 to 99 as the first century, years 100 to 199 as the second etc. However, in order to regard 2000 as the first year of the twenty-first century according to the astronomical year numbering, the astronomical year 0 has to correspond to the Gregorian year 1 BC.

Alternative naming systems

In Swedish
Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic languages language, spoken by around 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the ?land islands....
 and Finnish
Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by Finnish people outside of Finland. It is one of the official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden....
 centuries are typically not named ordinally, but according to the hundreds part of the year, and consequently centuries start at even multiples of 100. For example, Swedish nittonhundratalet (or 1900-talet) and Finnish tuhatyhdeksänsataaluku (or 1900-luku) refer unambiguously to the years 1900–1999. The same system is used informally in English. For example, the years 1900-1999 are sometimes referred to as the nineteen hundreds(1900s). This is similar to the English decade names (1980s = the years 1980–1989).

See also

  • List of centuries
    List of centuries

    The pages listed below contain information about trends and events in particular century and millennium....
  • Decade
    Decade

    A decade is a period of ten years. The word is derived from the late Latin language decas, from Greek language decas, from deca. The other words for spans of years also come from Latin: lustrum , century , millennium ....
  • Millennium
    Millennium

    A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years . The term may implicitly refer to calendar millenniums; periods tied numerically to a particular calendar, specifically ones that begin at the starting point of the calendar in question or in later years which are whole number multiples of a thousand years after it....