millennium
/mɪˈlɛnɪəm/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.70 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The year in which one period of one thousand years ends and another begins, especially the year 2000.
noun
Any long (and possibly endless) era of universal happiness, peace, and prosperity, predicted by various people to come about someday.
Archaic
name
The period of one thousand years during which Christ will reign on earth (according to Millenarianist interpretations).
Example Sentences
- "But these seekers, too, are saved - by virtue of the inherited symbolic aids of society, the rites of passage, the grace-yielding sacraments, given to mankind of old by the redeemers and handed down through millenniums."
- "How this happens no one really knows, despite the efforts of philosophers and psychologists over two and a half millennia to study the phenomenon."
- "The first known man-made tools, including spear points and axes, were associated with a hunting and gathering pattern that lasted, according to anthropologists, almost 200 millennia."
- "Magnolias are some of the most primitive of our flowering trees, and fossils dating back millennia prove that they have had little need to evolve."
- "After millenniums of austerity and poverty, the age of limitless “superabundance” was at hand."
- "A huge fireworks display was put on in Sydney to celebrate the millennium."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sem- Proto-Indo-European *sm̥- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ih₂ Proto-Indo-European *smih₂ Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰes- Proto-Indo-European *-lom Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéslom ▲ Proto-Indo-European *-ih₂ Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéslih₂ Proto-Indo-European *smih₂ǵʰéslih₂ Proto-Italic *smīɣeslī Latin mīlle Proto-Indo-European *h₂et- Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *h₂etnós Proto-Italic *atnos? Latin annus Latin annīs Latin mīllennis Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -iusnom. Latin -ium Late Latin mīllenniumbor. English millennium From Late Latin mīllennium, from Latin mīllennis (“1000-year”) + -ium (forming abstract nouns).
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: mīllennium, mīllennis