What does centenarian mean?
A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of one hundred or more. The word functions chiefly as a noun, as in 'the village's oldest centenarian', but it can also serve as an adjective describing things associated with such extreme longevity, as in 'centenarian athletes' or a 'centenarian birthday'. It derives from Latin centum, meaning hundred, via centenarius, 'containing a hundred', with an English suffix marking a person. Centenarian carries warm, respectful connotations: it appears most often in news stories about milestone birthdays, longevity research, and profiles of remarkably long-lived individuals. As life expectancy rises worldwide, the word has grown steadily more common, and demographers now track centenarian populations as a measure of public health. A related term, supercentenarian, refers to the much rarer people who live past 110.
A person who is one hundred years old or older.
"At her party, the centenarian credited a daily walk and good genes for her long life."
Plural: centenarians.
Relating to or characteristic of a person who is a hundred or more years old.
"He took up painting in his centenarian years."
Regular English plural; used both for specific groups of very old people and, collectively, for demographic populations.
"Japan has one of the highest numbers of centenarians per capita in the world."
There are fewer than half a million centenarians alive worldwide today — yet the number has roughly doubled every decade since the 1970s.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of centenarian
Centenarian comes from the Latin centenarius, meaning 'of a hundred' or 'containing a hundred', itself built on centum, the Latin word for 'one hundred'. English adopted it in the early nineteenth century, attaching it to people who had reached their hundredth year. It shares this Latin root with words such as centenary, centennial, percent, and bicentenary, all of which involve counting by hundreds.
Related word forms
How centenarian is actually used
Neutral to positive in connotation — often used in celebratory contexts such as milestone birthdays. The adjectival use ('a centenarian athlete') is common but secondary to the noun. 'Supercentenarian' denotes the rarer group aged 110+.
Easily confused with centenarian
A supercentenarian is specifically a person aged 110 or older, whereas a centenarian is anyone aged 100 or older.