centenarian
noun
Did you know?
We can't say there are exactly 100 English words based on the Latin root centum, meaning "hundred," but there are certainly dozens. "Centenarian" isn't the oldest one; it only dates from the late 1700s. Far older is "centurion" (an ancient Roman military officer), which has been around since the 13th century. A younger "centum" offspring is "centisecond," a rare term for 1/100 of a second that dates from the 1950s. From colorful words such as "centicipitous" (which means "100-headed") to practical ones like "centgener" ("a device for planting 100 seeds"), "centum" descendants have enlivened our language for centuries.
Examples of centenarian in a Sentence
Angel Saunders, PEOPLE, 6 Nov. 2025
About 60% of our centenarians have something on their genome that interferes with the action of growth hormone.
—Dominique Mosbergen, Time, 31 Oct. 2025
Healthy centenarian Tony Jefferson picked the first pass.
—Nick Canepa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Oct. 2025
By age 60, the future centenarians were already charting their own path, with distinct patterns in the number and type of illnesses—and even in biomarker values—according to lead author and epidemiologist Karin Modig.
—Cameron Schoppa
sonal Nain, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for centenarian
Cite this Entry
“Centenarian.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/centenarian. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025.
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centenarian
noun
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