milieu
/mɪlˈju/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.93 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An environment or setting; a medium; environs
noun
A social environment or setting.
noun
A group of people with a common point of view; a social class or group.
Example Sentences
- "Australian cinema is a messy affair. It is a messiness not only in our ways of knowing, reading, consuming and producing films and the larger film-making milieu of which they are a part, but also a messiness among the films themselves […]"
- "In the electronic milieu, accuracy is accomplished by the technology, and the appropriate strategy for judgment is likely to entail ensuring coherence within and across electronic and naturalistic components of the ecology."
- "The library as solely a physical space will not survive in the digital milieu. Services should be directed towards user needs and desires in the current academic climate."
- "The question is, then, what is the relationship of biblical narrative to its literary milieu? […] One must simultaneously biblical narrative in light of its clear historical connections to its literary milieu, while carefully analyzing the profound differences separating it from its milieu as well."
- "The distinction between the constituents in, and the conditions of, the integral life-career of person is well brought out in contrasting the attitudes of attention which persons normally develop with the milieux or social media which serve as the theater for their exercise. […] The assertive attitude of challenge finds its milieux in the domains of sport, art, exercise, industry, etc., to which the conception of gestalt may well be extended."
- "Confronted by the multiplicity of the milieus that could influence curriculum activity, we need some way of deciding not only what kinds of milieus should claim our attention, but also what kinds of knowledge about them we should attend to."
Etymology
PIE word *me Borrowed from French milieu (“physical or social environment; group of people with a common point of view”), from Middle French milieu, meilleu, mileu, from Old French milliu, meillieu, mileu (“middle”), from mi- (prefix meaning ‘half’) (from Latin medius (“half; middle”)) + lieu, leu (“place”) (from Latin locus (“place; spot (specific location)”)).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /mɪlˈju/
- British English: /ˈmiːljɜː/