Hundred in Different Languages
Discover 'Hundred' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Updated on March 6, 2024
The word 'hundred' is a small but powerful term, denoting a quantity that is significant yet manageable. It's a number that has been used for millennia to divide and organize, to measure and compare. From ancient Sumerian cuneiform to modern-day digital interfaces, the concept of 'hundred' has been a constant, cross-cultural touchstone.
But what about the word itself? How do we translate 'hundred' into other languages, and what can that tell us about the cultures that use those languages? The word 'hundred' can be translated into Spanish as 'cien', into French as 'cent', into German as 'hundert', and into Chinese as '百' (bǎi). Each of these translations reveals something unique about the language and the culture that speaks it.
So why should you care about the translations of 'hundred'? Understanding how other cultures divide and organize quantities can give you valuable insights into their ways of thinking and perceiving the world. Plus, it's just plain fascinating to explore the rich tapestry of human language and culture.
Hundred
Hundred in Sub-Saharan African Languages
| Afrikaans | honderd | ||
| The Afrikaans word "honderd" also means "a lot or many" in colloquial usage. | |||
| Amharic | መቶ | ||
| The Amharic word "መቶ" also refers to a unit of time equal to three hours. | |||
| Hausa | dari | ||
| In Hausa, the word "dari" not only means "hundred" but also refers to a unit of currency or a round calabash used for storing grains. | |||
| Igbo | narị | ||
| In the Nsukka dialect of Igbo, "narị" also refers to a bundle of fifty kolanuts. | |||
| Malagasy | -jato | ||
| -jato (hundred) derives from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *jaqatu, but also means "to be born" and "to be complete". | |||
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | zana | ||
| "Zana" also refers to a unit of counting in the Nyanja/Chichewa culture. Traditionally in Nyanja, counting from one to seven is the common way of counting, and larger quantities are counted in units of seven. In this context, "zana" refers to the number 14. | |||
| Shona | zana | ||
| The word "zana" in Shona can also refer to a "heap" or a "pile" of something. | |||
| Somali | boqol | ||
| The Somali word | |||
| Sesotho | lekholo | ||
| The word "lekholo" comes from the Proto-Bantu word "-kɔro", meaning "group" or "flock". This suggests that the concept of a hundred was originally based on the size of a herd of animals. | |||
| Swahili | mia | ||
| The term 'mia' is also used in a figurative sense to express 'many' or 'plenty' as in the phrase 'Mia ya shida' ('A multitude of problems'). | |||
| Xhosa | ikhulu | ||
| The word "ikhulu" also carries the concept of many or all, and in the context of people, it can refer to a community or a clan. | |||
| Yoruba | ogorun | ||
| Ogorun, a Yoruba word for 'hundred', is also associated with the concept of completeness, implying a full cycle or set. | |||
| Zulu | ikhulu | ||
| Ikhulu also means "a lot" or "many" in Zulu and is often used to express a large, unspecified quantity. | |||
| Bambara | kɛmɛ | ||
| Ewe | alafa | ||
| Kinyarwanda | ijana | ||
| Lingala | nkama | ||
| Luganda | kikumi | ||
| Sepedi | lekgolo | ||
| Twi (Akan) | ɔha | ||
Hundred in North African & Middle Eastern Languages
| Arabic | مائة | ||
| The word "مائة" (pronounced "miāa:") derives from the Proto-Semitic word "*mʾt" meaning "fullness, abundance". | |||
| Hebrew | מֵאָה | ||
| The word 'מאה' ('hundred') and the word 'מאות' ('hundreds') are cognates of the word 'מאת' ('from'), due to the fact that numbers in ancient Semitic languages were often used as ordinal numbers. | |||
| Pashto | سل | ||
| The word "سل" also refers to a unit of land area equivalent to 100 jaribs or approximately 100 acres. | |||
| Arabic | مائة | ||
| The word "مائة" (pronounced "miāa:") derives from the Proto-Semitic word "*mʾt" meaning "fullness, abundance". | |||
Hundred in Western European Languages
| Albanian | njëqind | ||
| The word 'njëqind' (hundred) derives from Proto-Albanian '*ni̯á-kʼent' and Proto-Indo-European '*sm̥-ḱm̥tóm', both meaning 'hundred'. | |||
| Basque | ehun | ||
| In the word “ehun” (“hundred”) the root “hun” is of Indo-European origin and means “ten”. | |||
| Catalan | centenars | ||
| The Catalan word "centenars" originated from the Latin word "centenarius" and also refers to a group of 100 people in the Balearic Islands. | |||
| Croatian | stotina | ||
| Stotina, besides its primary meaning "hundred", also historically meant "district" and "tax".} | |||
| Danish | hundrede | ||
| The Danish word "hundrede" is derived from the Old Norse word "hundrað", meaning "a hundred", and is related to the English word "hundred". | |||
| Dutch | honderd | ||
| The word "honderd" originates from the Proto-Germanic word "*hundradą", meaning "a unit of one hundred". | |||
| English | hundred | ||
| The word "hundred" originates from the Old English "hundrede," meaning a group of a hundred hides of land or a territorial division. | |||
| French | cent | ||
| "Cent" (hundred) also means "a hundred times" in French, as in "cent fois" (a hundred times). | |||
| Frisian | hûndert | ||
| 'Hûndert' likely comes from 'te hûndert', which means 'by the hundred', referring to the way Frisians counted up to twelve, then counting in hundreds and thousands beyond. | |||
| Galician | cen | ||
| "Cen" is a numeral, but it can also be used in the composition of words to indicate a large quantity or a vague number. | |||
| German | hundert | ||
| The word "hundert" is cognate with Old English "hund" and Latin "centum", meaning "a hundred". | |||
| Icelandic | hundrað | ||
| Old Norse 'hundrath' means 'a hundred men', a unit used for military conscription. | |||
| Irish | céad | ||
| The word "céad" in Modern Irish also means "first" or "time". | |||
| Italian | centinaio | ||
| The word "centinaio" is derived from the Latin word "centuria", meaning "a group of 100". | |||
| Luxembourgish | honnert | ||
| The word "honnert" has been used to mean both "hundred" and "canton" in Luxembourgish. | |||
| Maltese | mija | ||
| The word "mija" in Maltese derives from the Arabic "mi'a", meaning "hundred", and also has the alternate meaning of "family" or "group of people". | |||
| Norwegian | hundre | ||
| Hundre derives from the Old Norse word "hundrað", which referred to a group of 120 fighters. | |||
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | cem | ||
| cem also means "a great amount" in Portugal | |||
| Scots Gaelic | ceud | ||
| The word "ceud" can also refer to a "hundredweight" or a "long hundred," which is 120 units. | |||
| Spanish | cien | ||
| The word "cien" also means "certainty" in Spanish, derived from the Latin word "certus" meaning "sure". | |||
| Swedish | hundra | ||
| 'Hundra' also means 'red' in Swedish, which can be seen in the names of animals like the fox and squirrel. | |||
| Welsh | cant | ||
| In Welsh, the word "cant" also refers to the traditional administrative division or a part of a county. | |||
Hundred in Eastern European Languages
| Belarusian | сто | ||
| The Belarusian word "сто" (hundred) is cognate with the Russian word "сотня" (hundred), both deriving from the Proto-Slavic word *stotъ. | |||
| Bosnian | stotinu | ||
| The word "stotinu" is derived from the Proto-Slavic word "*stъ" meaning "hundred" and the suffix "-inu" indicating a group of things or people. | |||
| Bulgarian | сто | ||
| The word "сто" can also mean "cost" or "value". | |||
| Czech | sto | ||
| "Sto" is an abbreviation of the Old Slavonic "sъto" meaning "to stand" or "to be in place". | |||
| Estonian | sada | ||
| Sada is related to Sanskrit shatam meaning a hundred or a collection of a hundred. | |||
| Finnish | sata | ||
| The word 'sata' can also mean 'many' or 'very much'. | |||
| Hungarian | száz | ||
| "Száz" can also mean "century" and is related to the word "shoot" in archery. | |||
| Latvian | simts | ||
| The word 'simts' has a Germanic root and is related to the English word 'hundred', the German word 'hundert' and the Swedish word 'hundrade'. | |||
| Lithuanian | šimtas | ||
| The word "šimtas" derives from the Proto-Indo-European root "*ḱm̥tóm", which means "hundred" or "much". | |||
| Macedonian | сто | ||
| The word "сто" is derived from the Proto-Slavic word "*sъto" and is related to the words "стог" (stack) and "стоять" (to stand). | |||
| Polish | sto | ||
| The Polish word "sto" is cognate with Russian "сто" (sto) and Latin "centum" (hundred). | |||
| Romanian | sută | ||
| The word "sută" also means "row" in certain contexts, such as in the phrase "sută de porumb" ("row of corn"). | |||
| Russian | сотня | ||
| "Сотня" also means "a group of a hundred" or "a military unit of a hundred". | |||
| Serbian | стотину | ||
| The word "стотину" is also used to describe a group of 100 people. | |||
| Slovak | sto | ||
| The word "sto" in Slovak can also mean "floor" or "table", and is related to the word "stat" (to stand). | |||
| Slovenian | sto | ||
| The word 'sto' is cognate with the Latin 'centum' and the Greek 'hekaton' via Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥tóm. | |||
| Ukrainian | сотня | ||
| The word quot;сотняquot; also means quot;a military unit of 100 menquot; in Ukrainian. | |||
Hundred in South Asian Languages
| Bengali | একশ | ||
| একশ (ēkôsh) comes from the Sanskrit word 'śata' meaning 'hundred' and also refers to the one-hundredth part of a rupee in colloquial Bengali. | |||
| Gujarati | સો | ||
| "સો" can also mean "beautiful", "good-looking" or "pleasing" in Gujarati. | |||
| Hindi | सौ | ||
| In Sanskrit, 'सौ'(sau) is a variation of the word 'शत' (śata), which means 'many' or 'crowd', and is also used in the context of 'group of hundreds'. | |||
| Kannada | ನೂರು | ||
| "ನೂರು" is etymologically linked to the Tamil word "நூறு" (nūru), meaning "thread or yarn" which were often used as a form of currency in the past, 100 coins being worth 1 nūru. | |||
| Malayalam | നൂറ് | ||
| The Malayalam equivalent for "hundred" is believed to be rooted in Proto-Dravidian, sharing similar origins with the numerals for "hundred" in other Dravidian languages like Tamil (எண்ணார், "nūru") and Telugu (ಕೆನ್, "nūra"). | |||
| Marathi | शंभर | ||
| The word "शंभर" has another meaning, "a large number; innumerable". | |||
| Nepali | सय | ||
| "सय" (say) is also a synonym for "सो" (so), meaning "thousand" or "a lot of money" in Nepali. | |||
| Punjabi | ਸੌ | ||
| In ancient times, 'ਸੌ' also meant a 'hundred thousand' in Punjabi. | |||
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | සියය | ||
| The Sinhala word "සියය" (hundred), also means "great quantity." | |||
| Tamil | நூறு | ||
| The word 'நூறு' ('hundred') in Tamil is derived from the Proto-Dravidian word 'nūṟu'. | |||
| Telugu | వంద | ||
| "వంద" can also mean "a group of 12".} | |||
| Urdu | سو | ||
| It shares the same etymology as the English word "century". Also, it can refer to something that is of low quality. | |||
Hundred in East Asian Languages
| Chinese (Simplified) | 百 | ||
| "百" can also mean "many" or "all". | |||
| Chinese (Traditional) | 百 | ||
| The character "百" is sometimes used as a general term for "many" or "a lot" in Chinese, such as "百川" (baichuan, many rivers). | |||
| Japanese | 百 | ||
| The kanji 百 can also mean “all,” or “everything,” as in 百花繚乱 (hyakka ryouran) or “a dazzling array of flowers.” | |||
| Korean | 백 | ||
| The word "백" (百) is derived from the Chinese character for "hundred" and also means "white" in Korean. | |||
| Mongolian | зуу | ||
| The Mongolian word "зуу" (hundred) is derived from the Mongolian word "зуун" (big, many). | |||
| Myanmar (Burmese) | တရာ | ||
| "တရာ" in Myanmar also refers to 120 and is a unit of counting used for some items such as eggs. | |||
Hundred in South East Asian Languages
| Indonesian | ratus | ||
| The word "ratus" in Indonesian is derived from the Sanskrit word "śata", meaning "hundred". | |||
| Javanese | atus | ||
| "Atus" can also refer to a large amount or a group of people. | |||
| Khmer | រយ | ||
| In Khmer, the word "រយ" (hundred) also denotes a hundred years, a century. | |||
| Lao | ຮ້ອຍ | ||
| ຮ້ອຍ is also the classifier used for things that come in pairs | |||
| Malay | ratus | ||
| The word "ratus" in Malay also means "complete" or "perfect". | |||
| Thai | ร้อย | ||
| The Thai word "ร้อย" (hundred) also means "connect" or "join". | |||
| Vietnamese | trăm | ||
| The word "trăm" derives from the Austroasiatic root "-trăm" meaning "gather together". | |||
| Filipino (Tagalog) | daan | ||
Hundred in Central Asian Languages
| Azerbaijani | yüz | ||
| In ancient Turkic "yüz" meant "people" and it came to mean "hundred" later. | |||
| Kazakh | жүз | ||
| The Kazakh word "жүз" comes from the Proto-Turkic word "üz" meaning "face, appearance" and is related to the Persian word "چهره" (chehre) meaning "face, appearance, countenance". | |||
| Kyrgyz | жүз | ||
| In Kyrgyz, the word "жүз" ("hundred") also means "face", "kind", "tribe", and "century". | |||
| Tajik | сад | ||
| The word "сад" also means "time" in certain compound words. | |||
| Turkmen | ýüz | ||
| Uzbek | yuz | ||
| The word "yuz" is also used to refer to a group of 100 people, such as a military unit or a tribe. | |||
| Uyghur | يۈز | ||
Hundred in Pacific Languages
| Hawaiian | haneli | ||
| In Hawaiian, the word "haneli" can also refer to a group of 100 people or objects. | |||
| Maori | rau | ||
| The word "rau" in Maori, meaning "hundred," also denotes multiple, many, all, a group, the public, as well as numerous collective items. | |||
| Samoan | selau | ||
| The word "selau" originally meant a type of large canoe. | |||
| Tagalog (Filipino) | daan | ||
| The word "daan" (literally meaning "road" or "way") also carries the meaning of "hundred" as in "daan milyon" (hundred million). | |||
Hundred in American Indigenous Languages
| Aymara | ciento | ||
| Guarani | sa'aty | ||
Hundred in International Languages
| Esperanto | cent | ||
| "Cent" is also the name of a U.S. coin worth one hundredth of a dollar. | |||
| Latin | centum | ||
| Centum can also mean "a group of a hundred," a "century," "a division of the Roman people," or a "company of soldiers" in Latin. | |||
Hundred in Others Languages
| Greek | εκατό | ||
| The word "εκατό" is also used in Greek to refer to a large, indeterminate number, similar to the English phrase "a hundred and one". | |||
| Hmong | puas | ||
| "Puas" shares the same root word as "pas", which means "ten" in Hmong and is also found in other Tai-Kadai languages. | |||
| Kurdish | sed | ||
| The word "sed" is also used as a slang term meaning "very" or "extremely". | |||
| Turkish | yüz | ||
| "Yüz" ayrıca "yüz" anlamına gelir ve Eski Türkçe *yüz "yüz, yüzey, görünüş" kelimesinden türemiştir. | |||
| Xhosa | ikhulu | ||
| The word "ikhulu" also carries the concept of many or all, and in the context of people, it can refer to a community or a clan. | |||
| Yiddish | הונדערט | ||
| The Yiddish word "הונדערט" can alternately mean "a lot" or "many". | |||
| Zulu | ikhulu | ||
| Ikhulu also means "a lot" or "many" in Zulu and is often used to express a large, unspecified quantity. | |||
| Assamese | শত | ||
| Aymara | ciento | ||
| Bhojpuri | सौ | ||
| Dhivehi | ސަތޭކަ | ||
| Dogri | सौ | ||
| Filipino (Tagalog) | daan | ||
| Guarani | sa'aty | ||
| Ilocano | sangagasut | ||
| Krio | ɔndrɛd | ||
| Kurdish (Sorani) | سەد | ||
| Maithili | सैय | ||
| Meiteilon (Manipuri) | ꯆꯥꯝꯃ | ||
| Mizo | za | ||
| Oromo | dhibba | ||
| Odia (Oriya) | ଶହେ | ||
| Quechua | pachak | ||
| Sanskrit | शतकः | ||
| Tatar | йөз | ||
| Tigrinya | ሚእቲ | ||
| Tsonga | dzana | ||