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cent

[sent]

noun

a bronze coin of the U.S., the 100th part of a U.S. dollar: made of steel during part of 1943. Symbol: ¢

the 100th part of the monetary units of various other nations, including Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Canada, Ethiopia, Fiji, Guyana, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Kenya, Liberia, Mauritius, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Seychelles, Sierra Leone, the Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uganda.

sen³.

Origin:
1325–75; Middle English < Latin centēsimus hundredth (by shortening), equivalent to cent(um) 100 (see hundred) + -ēsimus ordinal suffix

Can be confused: cents, scents, sense (see synonym note at sense).

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Cent is always a great word to know.

So is interrobang. Does it mean:

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.

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Example Sentences

Those incompetent, greedy bastards don't deserve a red cent.

One person buys one cent of stuff from the second person in a day.

Proponents say the economic fears are exaggerated, citing one study that puts the increased cost at less than one cent per egg.

EXPAND

Dictionary.com Unabridged

variant of centi- before a vowel: centare.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To cent

Collins

World English Dictionary

cent (sɛnt)

—n
1.	a monetary unit of American Samoa, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Brunei, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guyana, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Micronesia, Monaco, Montenegro, Namibia, Nauru, the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, the Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Surinam, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, the United States, the Vatican City, the Virgin Islands, and Zimbabwe. It is worth one hundredth of their respective standard units
2.	an interval of pitch between two frequencies f₂ and f₁ equal to 3986.31 log (f₂/f₁); one twelve-hundredth of the interval between two frequencies having the ratio 1:2 (an octave)

[C16: from Latin centēsimus hundredth, from centum hundred]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

cent

c.1400, from L. centum "hundred" (see hundred). M.E. meaning was "one hundred," but shifted to "hundredth part" under infl. of percent. Chosen in this sense in 1786 as name for U.S. currency unit by Continental Congress. The name was first suggested by Robert Morris in 1782

EXPAND

under a different currency plan. Before the cent, colonial dollars were reckoned in ninetieths, based on the exchange rate of Pennsylvania money and Spanish coin.

COLLAPSE

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

cent definition

n.
one dollar. (Underworld.) : One cent for one joint? Not bad.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

cent

see for two cents; not worth a dime (red cent); put in one's two cents.