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millennium Definition

mil·len·nium (mi lenē əm)

noun pl. -·ni·ums or -·nia

  1. any period of 1,000 years 2000 through 1001 is the 2d millennium
  2. a period of 1,000 years reckoned from a certain time, esp. from the beginning of the Christian Era (1) the year A.D. 2001 marks the beginning of the third millennium
  3. a 1,000th anniversary or its commemoration
  4. any period of great happiness, peace, prosperity, etc.; imagined golden age

Etymology: ModL < L mille, thousand + annus, year (after L biennium): see annual

millennium Related Forms
mil·len·nial adjective mil·len·ni·al·ism′ noun mil·len·ni·al·ist noun
millennium Idioms

the millennium

Christian Theol. the period of 1,000 years during which Christ will reign on earth: Rev. 20:1-5

millennium Synonyms

millennium

n.

a thousand years, millenary, the Second Coming, happiness, golden age, golden dream, kingdom come, heaven on earth, thousand years of peace; see also utopia.

millennium Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • Christianity: We are now at the start of the third millenium of Christianity.

Converse of object

  • celebrate: The school has celebrated the coming Millenium in several ways.
  • commemorate: It consists of a tall cross commemorating the Millenium.
  • span: They span five millennia, and are written on virtually every medium ever employed.
  • enter: We enter the new millenium strongly positioned for continued success.
  • mark: Last year we made a CD to mark the Millenium.
  • greet: Of course we want success at Langney, but not if it means greeting the millenium with a 2nd Division fixture.

Adjective modifier

  • third: Not the case now we're in the third Millenium.
  • 3rd: In the Trust we are building a new hospital fit for the 3rd millenium.
  • 2nd: Tin bronze work commenced from about the beginning of the 2nd millenium B.C. to the mid 1st millenium B.C. in Xinjiang, China.
  • 1st: Nick Merriman handles the 1st millenium BC with equal aplomb.
  • fourth: We know that deposits of silver were worked in Iran from the fourth millenium BC.
  • 4th: Among the earliest structures revealed during the survey were trackways from the 4th millenium BC, visible only very rarely at extreme low water.

Modifies a noun

  • bug: Millenium Bug: planning for disaster on January 1 There is considerable coverage being given to the Year 2000 problem.
  • celebration: Chris Smith has given shape to the wider Millenium celebrations.
  • dome: I'll build a mini millenium dome in my garden!
  • stadium: Millenium Stadium will be even more tense than this, if we win, it will even eclipse this as an experience.
  • eve: The first came on millenium eve whilst standing on London Bridge waiting for the fireworks to go off.
  • ad: It is the earliest example in Cornwall During the first millenium AD, what is now Cornwall evolved from a Roman division of territory.

Noun used with modifier

  • landmark: The launch of the new name for Bristol's landmark Millenium project.
millennium Quotes

The future of humanity is uncertain, even in the most prosperous countries, and the quality of life deteriorates; and yet I believe that what is being discovered about the infinitely large and infinitely small is sufficient to absolve this end of the century and millennium.What a very feware acquiring in knowledge of the physical world will perhaps cause this period not to be judged as a pure return of barbarism.

—Levi, Primo

The Millennium Dome was intended to be New Labour's Xanadu and Tony Blair its Kubla Khan.

—Rawnsley, Andrew

Browse dictionary entries near millennium

  1. millenary
  2. millenarian
  3. millefleurs
  4. millefiori
  5. milled
  6. mille-feuille
  7. milldam
  8. millcake
  9. Millay
  10. Millais
  1. millennium bug
  2. millepede
  3. millepore
  4. miller
  5. miller's-thumb
  6. millerite
  7. millesimal
  8. millet
  9. milli-
  10. milliampere