hundredweight

English

Alternative forms

• cwt. (abbreviation)

Etymology

16th century, from hundred +‎ weight.

Noun

hundredweight (plural hundredweight or hundredweights)

1. (Canada, US) A measure of weight containing 100 avoirdupois pounds (45.5 kg).

   Synonyms: (historical) cental, (rare) centner, short hundredweight, (historical) quintal

2. (UK) A measure of weight containing 8 stone or 112 avoirdupois pounds (51 kg).

   Synonyms: long hundredweight, imperial hundredweight

   • 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume IV, page 209:

     The hundredweight of 112 avoirdupois lbs. becomes general in the period before me, and is employed for the commoner kinds of materials.

Usage notes

The short hundredweight is commonly used in the US in the sale of livestock and some cereal grains and oilseeds, paper, and concrete additives and on some commodities in futures exchanges. Since increasing metrication in most English-speaking countries the long hundredweight is now less used.

The older designation and measure of weight quintal (“hundredweight”) is not standardized; see the usage notes there for more information.

Descendants

• → Bengali: হন্দর (hondor)

See also

• bushel
• quintal

Translations

measure of weight (some may be only approximately equivalent)

• Arabic: قِنْطَار (qinṭār)
• Bulgarian: центнер m (centner)
• Catalan: quintar (ca) m
• Finnish: sentneri (fi)
• French: quintal (fr) m

  Middle French: quintal m

  Old French: quintal m

• Georgian: ცენტნერი (cenṭneri)
• German: Zentner (de) m
• Hindi: क्विंटल m (kviṇṭal), कुंटल (hi) m (kuṇṭal), कुंतल (hi) m (kuntal)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Indonesian: kuintal (id)
• Irish: céad (ga) m
• Norman: chent m (Jersey)
• Persian: قنطار (fa) (qentâr)
• Portuguese: quintal (pt) m
• Spanish: quintal m
• Turkish:

  Ottoman Turkish: قنطار (kantar)

• Vilamovian: cȧnkner m