millet
/ˈmɪlət/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.98 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of a group of various types of grass or its grains used as food, widely cultivated in the developing world.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A semi-autonomous confessional community under the Ottoman Empire, especially a non-Muslim one.
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "[…] Tobias said, ‘Don't bother. Elena's allergic to all known food groups. The only thing she eats here is seasoned millet and rainwater they bring down from Vermont in a zinc can.’"
- "The special duties of these millet organizations are to care for the educational and other moral wants of the people […]"
- "[…] in support for a common Serbian Orthodox Church, the one traditional institution permitted to exist under the Ottoman millet system which sought to rule subject peoples indirectly through their own religious hierarchies."
- "Christians and Jews as People of the Book […] were organized into separate communities, or millets, defined by their common practice of the same religion, which was guaranteed as protected as long as it was primarily practised in private."
Etymology
From late Middle English, borrowed from Middle French millet; from Latin milium, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to grind, crush”), see also Ancient Greek μελίνη (melínē, “millet”) and Lithuanian málnos (“millet”). Not related to مِلَّة (milla).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈmɪlət/
- British English: /ˈmɪlɪt/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in People.
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
milletgrass
milletmeal
Phrases
adlay millet
African millet
Australian millet
barnyard millet
black millet
broomcorn millet
broomtail millet
browntop millet