hundredweight
English
Alternative forms
- (abbreviation): cwt.
Etymology
hundred + weight
Noun
hundredweight (plural hundredweight or hundredweights)
- (Canada, US) A measure of weight containing 100 avoirdupois pounds (45.5 kg).
- Synonyms: cental (historical), centner (rare), short hundredweight, quintal (historical)
- (Britain) 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 4, p. 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.
See also
- bushel
- quintal
Translations
measure of weight (some may be only approximately equivalent)
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