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hundredweight

Archaic Terms
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An English unit of weight equal to 112 pounds or approximately 50.8 kilograms; fundamental to commercial weight measurement.

Detailed Definition
The hundredweight (cwt), despite its name, measured 112 pounds (eight stone) in Britain, though American hundredweight equals 100 pounds. This commercial weight unit was fundamental to wholesale trade, pricing, and transport. In poetry concerning commerce, industrial production, or market economy, hundredweight provides authentic commercial measurement. The term evokes wholesale trade, industrial scale, and commercial transactions beyond household quantities. Poets employed hundredweights when treating commercial or industrial themes, adding specific measurement that emphasizes scale, connecting to market economy and the infrastructure of trade and industry.
Example
Example in poetry:
In industrial poetry, "coal sold by the hundredweight, wagon after wagon to the factory furnaces"; Agricultural verse might reference "the potato harvest yielded twenty hundredweight per acre"; In maritime poetry, "the ship's cargo manifest listed goods in hundredweights, tons, and barrels"; Historical poetry about markets describes "merchants trading in hundredweights, quantities beyond household scale"; Regional poetry sometimes exploits the British/American difference: "English hundredweights of 112 pounds confound American buyers expecting 100"; Modern poets writing about industrialization might contrast "grandfather dealt in hundredweights, thought wholesale; we buy single pounds, think retail—scale of life diminished."
Additional Notes
The hundredweight's deceptive name (112 pounds in Britain, 100 pounds in America) confuses students but teaches important lessons about measurement diversity. Students should understand that British "long hundredweight" equals 112 pounds = 8 stone, while American "short hundredweight" equals 100 pounds. This transatlantic difference matters when interpreting historical documents or poetry. The hundredweight (abbreviated cwt from Latin centum weight) represents commercial scale—wholesale quantities beyond household purchases. In industrial and agricultural poetry, hundredweights convey substantial but manageable quantities. Understanding that 20 hundredweight = 1 ton helps students grasp graduated commercial measurements. The term appears in contexts of coal trade, agricultural produce, and industrial commerce. Students should recognize British/American measurement divergence as reminder that even "standard" English measures weren't fully standardized internationally. Related terms include stone (14 pounds), quarter (28 pounds), and ton (20 hundredweight). For students writing about commercial or industrial contexts, hundredweight provides authentic scale between household and massive quantities. The hundredweight can represent wholesale commerce, industrial scale, or the transition from human-manageable to mechanically-handled quantities.
Also Known As
cwt hundred weight
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