Definition of MILLENNIAL

millennial

Meanings

Plural: millennials

Adjective

  • relating to a millennium or span of a thousand years

Adj

  • Thousand-year-old; also (by extension, loosely) thousands of years old.
  • Occurring every thousand years.
  • Occurring at, or relating to, the beginning or end of a millennium.
  • Referring to the thousandth anniversary of an event or happening.
  • Often capitalized: of or relating to, or characteristic of, people born in the last two decades of the 20th century from around the early 1980s to the mid 1990s (with 1996 births cited as the last Millennial year), and who reached adulthood early in the third millennium C.E.
  • Synonym of millenarian (“pertaining to the belief in an impending period of one thousand years of peace and righteousness associated with the Second Coming of Christ and his reign on earth”).

Noun

  • Often capitalized: a person from the generation born in the last two decades of the 20th century, from around the early 1980s to the mid-1990s and who reached adulthood early in the third millennium C.E., characterized by their familiarity with computer technology and poorer financial prospects than their parents.
  • A thousandth anniversary; also, a celebration of such an anniversary.

Origin / Etymology

The adjective is a learned borrowing from Late Latin mīllennium (“millennium”) + English -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives; and forming nouns). The English word may be analysed as millennium + -al or milli- (prefix meaning ‘thousand’) + -ennial (suffix meaning ‘years’).
Sense 5 (“of or relating to, or characteristic of, people born in the last two decades of the 20th century”) was coined by the American authors William Strauss (1947–2007) and Neil Howe (born 1951) in their book Generations (1991): see the quotations.
The noun is derived from the adjective.

Synonyms

echo boomer, Generation Yer, millenarian, millennian, millenniary

Scrabble Score: 12

millennial is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
millennial is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
millennial is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 18

millennial is a valid Words With Friends word