millennium

mil·len·ni·um | \ mə-ˈle-nē-əm

plural millennia\ mə-ˈle-nē-ə

\ or millenniums

Definition of millennium

1a : the thousand years mentioned in Revelation (see revelation sense 3) 20 during which holiness is to prevail and Christ is to reign on earth

b : a period of great happiness or human perfection

2a : a period of 1000 years especially : one reckoned from the beginning of the Christian era at the start of the third millennium

b : a 1000th anniversary or its celebration In 2015 the city of Leipzig, Germany, celebrated its millennium.

Other Words from millennium Did You Know? Example Sentences Learn More about millennium

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Did You Know?

Since in Latin mille means "thousand", a millennium lasts 1,000 years. Thus, we're living today at the beginning of the third millennium since the birth of Christ. But some religious sects, relying on a prophecy in the biblical Book of Revelation, speak of a coming millennium when Jesus will return to reign on earth for 1,000 years, evil will be banished, and all will live in peace and happiness. Members of these sects who keep themselves in a constant state of preparedness are called millenarians or millennialists.

Examples of millennium in a Sentence

The book describes the changes that have occurred in the landscape over many millennia. The year 2000 was celebrated as the beginning of the third millennium.

Recent Examples on the Web Four and a half months ago, when the Spurs were heading into the home stretch of their most disappointing season of the millennium, the smart money was on Popovich using the 2020 Summer Olympics as his swan song and DeRozan hitting free agency. — Mike Finger, ExpressNews.com, "Mike Finger: Might Gregg Popovich and DeMar DeRozan now find reason to stay?," 30 July 2020 How will the large concrete bricks hold up to a millennium of weather and beyond? — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, "Germans Are Building a Time Pyramid Over the Next 1,000 Years," 29 May 2020 At the start of the First World War, government consumption in Britain jumped from 8% of GDP in 1913 to nearly 40% in 1917, according to analysis of the Bank of England’s millennium data set. — Sree Ramaswamy, Fortune, "What history can teach us about the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic," 1 June 2020 Inside, there was a figurine of the goddess, sitting on a donkey and carrying her jar of cooling liquid—the way she has been depicted for a millennium. — Siddhartha Mukherjee, The New Yorker, "How Does the Coronavirus Behave Inside a Patient?," 26 Mar. 2020 In 2013, with a few words in Latin, Pope Benedict XVI did what no pope had done in more than half a millennium: announced his resignation. — BostonGlobe.com, "This day in history," 11 Feb. 2020 Half a millennium on, the behavior of viruses like smallpox or 2019-nCoV hasn’t changed, but the behavior of their human hosts and victims has. — Time, "The Coronavirus Outbreak Should Bring Out the Best in Humanity," 8 Feb. 2020 Somehow, nearly a millennium later, Hamoutal has been remembered and honored. — Sam Sacks, WSJ, "Fiction: David, Bathsheba and Sir Thomas Wyatt," 31 Jan. 2020 The oldest known bowstrings outside of Ötzi’s come from Egyptian graves dated to between 2200 and 1900 B.C., making the Iceman’s bowstring, dated to between 3300 and 3100 B.C, the oldest by a millennium. — Theresa Machemer, Smithsonian Magazine, "What We Can Learn From Ötzi the Iceman’s Hunting Pack," 3 Jan. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'millennium.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.