Century - wikipedia Century `` Centuries '' and `` Centenary '' redirect here. For other uses, see Century ( disambiguation ), Centuries ( disambiguation ), and Centenary ( disambiguation ). This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( April 2009 ) A century ( from the Latin centum, meaning one hundred ; abbreviated c. ) is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. For example, `` the 17th century '' strictly refers to the years from 1601 to 1700, but popularly refers to be the years 1600 to 1699. A centenary is a hundredth anniversary or a celebration of this, typically the remembrance of an event which took place a hundred years earlier. Contents 1 Start and end in the Gregorian calendar 2 Debate over century celebration 2.1 Viewpoint 1 : Strict Usage 2.2 Viewpoint 2 : Common Usage and popular culture 3 1st century BC and AD 4 Dating units in other calendar systems 5 Centuries in astronomical year numbering 6 Alternative naming systems 7 See also 8 References 9 Bibliography Start and end in the Gregorian calendar According to the Gregorian calendar, the 1st century AD / CE started on January 1, 1, and ended on December 31, 100. The 2nd century started at year 101, the 3rd at 201, etc. The n - th century started / will start on the year ( 100 × n ) − 99 and ends in 100 × n. A century will only include one year, the centennial year, that starts with the century 's number ( e.g. 1900 is the final year of the 19th century ). Debate over century celebration Dionysius Exiguus of Scythia Minor introduced the anno Domini system in AD 525, counting the years since the birth of Christ. This calendar era is based on the traditionally reckoned year of the conception of Jesus of Nazareth, with AD counting years from the start of this epoch, and BC denoting years before the start of the era. There is no year zero in this scheme, so the year AD 1 immediately follows the year 1 BC. This dating system was devised in 525, but was not widely used until after 800. Strictly speaking, centuries begin with years ending with `` 01 '' as its last two digits and end with `` 00 ''. In common usage and popular culture, however, a new century begins with years ending in `` 00 '' and end with years ending in `` 99 ''. For example, strictly speaking, the 20th century runs from 1901 - 2000, but in common usage the 20th century runs from years 1900 - 1999. Neither terms however, are incorrect. There is, however, a year 0 in the astronomical year numbering and in the ISO 8601 : 2004. In this model the 20th century would span 1900 - 1999. Viewpoint 1 : Strict Usage 2 BC 1 BC 5... 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103... 198 199 200... 1901 1902... 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003... 2098 2099 2100 2101 2102 2103... 2198 2199 2200 1st century 2nd century... 20th century 21st century 22nd century Viewpoint 2 : Common Usage and popular culture 2 BC 1 BC 5... 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103... 198 199... 1900 1901 1902... 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003... 2098 2099 2100 2101 2102 2103... 2198 2199 1st century ( 99 years only ) 2nd century... 20th century 21st century 22nd century 1st century BC and AD There is no `` zeroth century '' in between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD. Also, there is no year 0 AD. The Julian calendar `` jumps '' from 1 BC to 1 AD. 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, the Aztec calendar, and the Hindu calendar have cycles of years that are used to delineate whole time periods ; the Hindu calendar, in particular, summarizes its years into groups of 60, while the Aztec calendar considers groups of 52. Centuries in astronomical year numbering Astronomical year numbering, used by astronomers, includes a year zero ( 0 ). Consequently, the 1st century in these calendars may designate the years 0 to 99 as the 1st century, years 100 to 199 as the second, etc. Therefore, in order to regard 2000 as the first year of the 21st century according to the astronomical year numbering, the astronomical year 0 has to correspond to the Gregorian year 1 BC. Alternative naming systems This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( May 2016 ) In Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Finnish, besides the ordinal naming of centuries another system is often used based on the hundreds part of the year, and consequently centuries start at even multiples of 100. For example, Swedish nittonhundratalet ( or 1900 - talet ), Danish nittenhundredetallet ( or 1900 - tallet ), Norwegian nittenhundretallet ( or 1900 - tallet ) 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, meaning the years 1980 -- 1989 ). See also Look up century in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Centuries and Centennials. Age of Discovery Ancient history Before Christ Common Era Decade List of centuries Lustrum Middle Ages Millennium Modern era Saeculum Year References Jump up ^ `` Oxford English Dictionary -- List of Abbreviations ''. Jump up ^ `` The 21st Century and the 3rd Millennium ''. aa.usno.navy.mil/. U.S. Naval Observatory. 14 June 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2012. Jump up ^ Two separate systems that also do not use religious titles, the astronomical system and the ISO 8601 standard do use a year zero. The year 1 BC ( identical to the year 1 BC ) is represented as 0 in the astronomical system, and as 0000 in ISO 8601. Presently, ISO 8601 dating requires usage of the Gregorian calendar for all dates, whereas astronomical dating and Common Era dating allow usage of the Julian calendar for dates before 1582 AD. Jump up ^ `` www.vedavidyalaya.com ''. Retrieved 4 September 2013. Jump up ^ `` www.aztec-history.com ''. Retrieved 4 September 2013. Bibliography The Battle of the Centuries, Ruth Freitag, U.S. Government Printing Office. Available from the Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250 - 7954. Cite stock no. 030 - 001 - 00153 - 9. Time measurement and standards Chronometry Orders of magnitude Metrology International standards Coordinated Universal Time offset UT ΔT DUT1 International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service ISO 31 - 1 ISO 8601 International Atomic Time 6 - hour clock 12 - hour clock 24 - hour clock Barycentric Coordinate Time Barycentric Dynamical Time Civil time Daylight saving time Geocentric Coordinate Time International Date Line Leap second Solar time Terrestrial Time Time zone 180th meridian Obsolete standards Ephemeris time Greenwich Mean Time Prime meridian Time in physics Absolute time and space Spacetime Chronon Continuous signal Coordinate time Cosmological decade Discrete time and continuous time Planck time Proper time Theory of relativity Time dilation Gravitational time dilation Time domain Time translation symmetry T - symmetry Horology Clock Astrarium Atomic clock Complication History of timekeeping devices Hourglass Marine chronometer Marine sandglass Radio clock Watch Water clock Sundial Dialing scales Equation of time History of sundials Sundial markup schema Calendar Astronomical Dominical letter Epact Equinox Gregorian Hebrew Hindu Intercalation Islamic Julian Leap year Lunar Lunisolar Solar Solstice Tropical year Weekday determination Weekday names Archaeology and geology Chronological dating Geologic time scale International Commission on Stratigraphy Astronomical chronology Galactic year Nuclear timescale Precession Sidereal time Units of time Century Day Decade Fortnight Hour Jiffy Lustrum Millennium Minute Moment Month Paksha Saeculum Second Shake Week Year Related topics Chronology Duration music Mental chronometry Metric time System time Time value of money Timekeeper Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Century&oldid=809202523 '' Categories : 100 ( number ) Centuries Units of time Hidden categories : All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from May 2012 Articles needing additional references from April 2009 All articles needing additional references Articles needing additional references from May 2016 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Afrikaans Alemannisch Ænglisc Aragonés ܐܪܡܝܐ Asturianu Avañe'ẽ Авар Azərbaycanca Bân - lâm - gú Basa Banyumasan Башҡортса Беларуская Беларуская ( тарашкевіца ) ‎ Български Bosanski Brezhoneg Català Чӑвашла Čeština ChiShona Cymraeg Dansk Davvisámegiella Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Emiliàn e rumagnòl Эрзянь Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Frysk Gaeilge Gàidhlig Galego 客家 語 / Hak - kâ - ngî 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Hornjoserbsce Hrvatski Ido Ilokano Bahasa Indonesia Interlingua Íslenska Italiano עברית Basa Jawa ಕನ್ನಡ Къарачай - малкъар ქართული Қазақша Kiswahili Kreyòl ayisyen Kurdî Latina Latviešu Lëtzebuergesch Lietuvių Limburgs Lingála La. lojban. 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Question: how many years is equal to 1 century
Answer: 100