Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CEN'TU-RY, n. [L. centuria from centum, a hundred.]

1. In a general sense, a hundred; any thing consisting of a hundred parts.
2. A division of the Roman people for the purpose of electing magistrates and enacting laws, the people voting by centuries; also, a company consisting of a hundred men.
3. A period of a hundred years. This is the most common signification of the word; and as we begin our modern computation of time from the incarnation of Christ, the word is generally applied to some term of a hundred years subsequent to that event; as, the first or second century, or the tenth century. If we intend to apply the word to a different era, we use an explanatory adjunct; as, the third century before the Christian era, or after the reign of Cyrus.
4. The Centuries of Magdeburg, a title given to an ecclesiastical history, arranged in 13 centuries, compiled by a great number of Protestants at Magdeburg.