millennium
millennium Lexical Profile
millennium Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A period of one thousand years, especially when calculated from the traditional date of the birth of Christ.
"Archaeologists uncovered pottery shards that had remained buried for more than a millennium."
An anniversary of a thousand years, or the point in time at which one thousand-year period ends and another begins.
"Cities around the globe organized massive fireworks displays to celebrate the turn of the millennium."
A hoped-for future period of ideal peace, prosperity, and happiness, or in Christian theology, the prophesied thousand-year reign of Christ on earth.
"Social reformers of the nineteenth century often wrote as if a utopian millennium of universal harmony were just around the corner."
Word Nuance & Usage
"Millennium" is frequently misspelled with a single "n" because the related word "centennial" has two "n"s, leading writers to overlook that both "mille" (thousand) and "annus" (year) contain double letters. Additionally, the traditional Latin plural "millennia" is occasionally mistaken for a singular noun in casual writing.
• Rhymes for millennium
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in Modern Latin during the early 17th century from Latin mille ("thousand") and annus ("year"), modeled by analogy on classical Latin words such as biennium and triennium.