millennium
noun/mɪˈlɛnɪəm/
Etymology From Late Latin mīllennium, from Latin mīllennis (“1000-year”) + -ium (forming abstract nouns).
1
A period of time consisting of one thousand years.
- 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.1968, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd edition, London: Fontana Press, published 1993, page 23:
- How this happens no one really knows, despite the efforts of philosophers and psychologists over two and a half millennia to study the phenomenon.1972, Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 25:
3 more examples
- 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.2013, Al Gore, The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change, New York: Random House, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 37:
- 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.2013 March 24, Dan Pearson, “Magnolia magic: how to grow our favourite flowering tree”, in The Guardian:
- After millenniums of austerity and poverty, the age of limitless “superabundance” was at hand.2025 March 18, Samuel Moyn, “Can Democrats Learn to Dream Big Again?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 27 Mar 2025:
2
With definite article The year in which one period of one thousand years ends and another begins, especially the year 2000.
- A huge fireworks display was put on in Sydney to celebrate the millennium.
3
Archaic Any long (and possibly endless) era of universal happiness, peace, and prosperity, predicted by various people to come about someday.
- Near-synonym: utopia
- expecting a millennium
1 more example
- When rumour got afoot that in future mechanical power would be unlimited, the people expected a millennium.1930, Olaf Stapledon, Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future, London: Methuen & Co., →OCLC:
- Derived terms
- centimillennium, decamillennium, light millennium, megamillennium, millennial, millennialism, millennially, millenniarism, millennium bug, millennium egg, millionennium, postmillennium, yester-millennium