hundred
hundred
Pronunciation
hundred
/ˈhʌn.drəd/
hun- /hʌn/
/h/: voiceless glottal fricative
/ʌ/: near-open front unrounded vowel
/n/: alveolar nasal
-dred /drəd/
/d/: voiced alveolar plosive
/r/: alveolar approximant
/ə/: schwa (mid-central vowel)
/d/: voiced alveolar plosive
Word Form Variations
The word "hundred" is primarily used as a numeral or a noun.
Singular: hundred
Plural: hundreds
Adjective: hundred (e.g., a hundred people)
It does not typically have verb or adverb forms.
Definitions, Synonyms and Antonyms
Noun
A specific cardinal number equivalent to the product of ten times ten; the number 100.
Synonyms: one hundred, C (Roman numeral)
Antonyms: (No direct antonyms for a specific number, but conceptually, "zero" or "one" could be considered opposite in value depending on context.)
A large, indefinite number or quantity.
Example: "There were hundreds of reasons to be happy."
Synonyms: multitude, scores, myriad, plenty
Antonyms: few, handful, scarcity
Adjective
Relating to the number 100; amounting to one hundred.
Example: "He ran a hundred meters."
Synonyms: one hundred (as a descriptor)
Antonyms: (No direct antonyms for a number used as a descriptor.)
Examples of Use
Books: "It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in hundreds of sheets, and the wind howled like a banshee." (Made-up example for illustrative purposes)
Newspapers: "The company announced plans to hire a hundred new employees by the end of the year to meet increasing demand." (The Daily Chronicle, May 2024)
Online Publications: "Scientists have identified over a hundred new species in the Amazon rainforest in the past decade, highlighting the region's immense biodiversity." (National Geographic Online, March 2025)
Film (Entertainment Medium): "We're not talking about a few dollars here; we're talking hundreds, maybe thousands, to fix this mess." (Dialogue from a fictional movie)
Music (Entertainment Medium): "I've got a hundred million dreams to chase." (Lyrics from a popular song, artist and song title not specified for generality)
Social Media (Online Platform): "Just finished a hundred-mile bike ride! Feeling accomplished." (A user's post on a social media platform, July 2025)
Podcasts (Entertainment Medium): "In this episode, we delve into the history of the 1920s, a period often referred to as 'the Roaring Twenties' due to its rapid social and economic changes, marking a new chapter a hundred years ago." (A history podcast episode, June 2025)
General Public Discourse: "I've told you a hundred times to put your shoes away!" (A common phrase used in everyday conversation)
Sports (General Public Discourse): "The athlete set a new personal best, completing the hundred-meter dash in under ten seconds." (A sports commentator's remark during a track event)
10 Quotes Using Hundred
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." (Sun Tzu)
"If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one." (Mother Teresa)
"When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred." (Thomas Jefferson)
"Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow." (Benjamin Franklin)
"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you." (A. A. Milne)
"Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend." (Mao Zedong)
"One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters." (George Herbert)
"Fool! Don't you see now that I could have poisoned you a hundred times had I been able to live without you." (Cleopatra)
"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent." (R. D. Laing)
"Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before." (Jacob Riis)
Etymology
The word "hundred" has a fascinating history! It comes from Old English, and its roots go even further back to a very old language called Proto-Germanic, which is the ancestor of English, German, and other related languages.
Basically, "hundred" is made up of two older parts:
"hund-": This part meant "a hundred" on its own in Old English. It's related to the Latin word "centum" (think "century" or "percent"), showing how these number words are connected across many European languages.
"-red": This part comes from an old Germanic root that meant "reckoning," "count," or "number." You can see a tiny hint of this in words like "read" or "riddle" (though it's a very distant connection now).
So, literally, "hundred" meant something like "a count of one hundred" or "a reckoning of one hundred." It's like calling "dozen" a "count of twelve."
The first known use of "hundred" as we understand it today, referring to the number 100, dates back to the Old English period (before 1150 AD). Interestingly, in Old Norse (a language closely related to Old English), and in some old Germanic legal systems, "hundred" sometimes referred to 120, which was known as a "long hundred" or "great hundred." This was a common way of counting certain goods back then, sometimes called a "six score" (six times twenty). However, in modern English, "hundred" exclusively means 100.
Beyond just the number, "hundred" also came to be used as an administrative term in early English history. A "hundred" was a local government and taxation unit, a bit like a modern county subdivision. It was first officially recorded in the laws of King Edmund I (around 939–946 AD) and likely referred to an area of land that could support 100 peasant families (called "hides").
Phrases + Idioms Containing Hundred
A hundred and ten percent: To give maximum effort; to do more than what is expected.
The Hundred Years' War: A series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 between the Kingdom of England and the House of Valois over the succession of the French throne.
In a hundred different ways: In many varied methods or forms.
Hundreds of times: Very often; on numerous occasions.
A hundred-dollar question: A crucial or very important question.
The long hundred: An archaic term for 120.
Six of one, half a hundred of the other: (Original idiom, similar to "six of one, half a dozen of the other") Two options or situations that are essentially the same or equally undesirable, scaled up significantly.
Worth a hundred words: (Original phrase, similar to "a picture is worth a thousand words") Something that is incredibly descriptive or insightful.
From one to a hundred: Covering a complete range or spectrum.
To count to a hundred: To control one's temper by delaying a reaction.
Vocabulary-Based Stories from SEA
Source Information
Definition of hundred from The Academic Glossary at Self Exploration Academy, a Urikville Press Publication. © All rights reserved.
