half-century

33 3.0

A period of fifty years

noun
/ˈhæfˈsɛnʧəri/

: medio siglo

The floor of Yuri's garage was stained from more than a half century's worth of drippings from leaky vehicles.
the past half-century
a half-century ago
the last half-century

It lost all of its southern students and it would spend the next half century trying aggressively to get them back.

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Examples

In the last half-century, however, two developments have made the practice a source of concern.

Academic text (2017)
We have fought three major wars over the past half-century in the Asia-Pacific theater.

Academic text (1991)
Another half century later, that same fight continues.

Terroir (2023)
For over a half century.

I Will Follow You Into the Dark (2012)
So until the last half century, human population growth has been faster than exponential.
At last he had what was taken from him nearly a half-century before.

Fiction book (2002)
The climate of the HBEF has changed over the last half century.

Academic text (2012)
Much has changed in Turkey over the past half century, but not the fundamental character of Turkish nationalism.

Academic text (2011)
The nation's GDP has averaged 3.3 percent annual growth for the past half century.

Academic text (2011)
The city has transformed significantly over the last half-century, with new buildings and infrastructure.

Surface Forms

half-century singular

half-centuries plural

Morphology

half-century = half + century (transparent) = half + century

The meaning is directly formed from 'half' + 'century' = fifty years; learners knowing both components can readily infer the sense.

Etymology

The word half-century comes from half (meaning 'one of two equal parts') and century (meaning '100 years'), so it literally means 'fifty years'. It is used to talk about a period of fifty years, for example 'the last half-century' when we mean the last fifty years.