Chinese word

世纪

Pronunciation

Pinyinshì jì

Meaning

  • nouncentury

Example

下个世纪会有什么变化？xià gè shì jì huì yǒu shén me biàn huà

What changes will the next century bring?

Illustration for 世纪 (century)

More examples

我们现在生活在二十一世纪。wǒ men xiàn zài shēng huó zài èr shí yí shì jì

We live in the twenty-first century now.

Core concept

A numbered frame on the historical timeline, with each frame spanning one hundred years.

Common phrases

  • 下个世纪xià gè shì jì

    next century

  • 二十一世纪èr shí yí shì jì

    twenty-first century

  • 本世纪běn shì jì

    this century

Similar words

年代nián dài: A span of several years treated as one period, often identified by its dates.
时代shí dài: An era marked by the political, cultural, or social features of its time.
时期shí qī: A set period during which an event or situation continues.
年nián: A basic unit of time lasting one year.

Definition in Chinese

以一百年为单位，用来表示历史时期或纪年。yǐ yì bǎi nián wèi dān wèi yòng lái biǎo shì lì shǐ shí qī huò jì nián

Word origin

世 (shì, "era") + 纪 (jì, "recording") joins historical time with its measurement, producing the term for a century.

Usage tips

  • English names centuries with ordinal numbers, while Chinese commonly puts a cardinal number before this noun, so the number is not read as a quantity of centuries.

Other meanings

  • agenoun

Word lists with this word