millennium

See also: Millennium

English

Alternative forms

• millenium (archaic)

Etymology

From Late Latin mīllennium, from Latin mīllennis (“1000-year”) + -ium (forming abstract nouns).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɪˈlɛnɪəm/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Noun

millennium (plural millennia or millenniums)

1. A period of time consisting of one thousand years.

   Coordinate terms: annum, biennium, triennium, quadrennium, quinquennium, sexennium, septennium, octennium, novennium, decennium, vicennium, tricennium, centennium, quincentennium, decamillennium, centimillennium, millionennium

   • 1968, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd edition, London: Fontana Press, published 1993, page 23:

     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.

   • 2013, Al Gore, The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change‎^[1], New York: Random House, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 37:

     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 March 24, Dan Pearson, The Guardian:

     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.

2. (Christianity) The period of one thousand years during which Christ will reign on earth (according to Millenarianist interpretations).
   • 1888, C. I. Scofield, “The Seven Dispensations”, in Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (2 Tim. 2:15): Ten Outline Studies of The More Important Divisions of Scripture‎^[2], Second edition (Religion), Philadelphia, Penn.: Philadelphia School of the Bible, published 1923, →OCLC, page 25:

     After the purifying judgments which attended the personal return of Christ to the Earth, He will reign over restored Israel and over the earth for one thousand years. This is the period commonly called the Millennium. The seat of His power will be Jerusalem, and the saints, including the saved of the Dispensation of Grace, viz., the Church, will be associated with Him in His glory.

   • 1911, Saki, “Tobermory”, in The Chronicles of Clovis:

     An archangel ecstatically proclaiming the Millennium, and then finding that it clashed unpardonably with Henley and would have to be indefinitely postponed, could hardly have felt more crestfallen than Cornelius Appin at the reception of his wonderful achievement.

   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 137:

     the end of the world would be heralded by a series of spectacular and symbolic events […]. According to most commentators, this millennium had already begun.

   • 2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin, published 2012, page 117:

     Conrad's later years unfolded in the shadow of the coming Millennium, when the end of the world was forecast.

3. (archaic) A period of universal happiness, peace or prosperity; a utopia.
   • 1902, William James, “Lectures XIV and XV: The Value of Saintliness”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 375:

     But the aggressive members of society are always tending to become bullies, robbers, and swindlers; and no one believes that such a state of things as we now live in is the millennium.

   • 1930, Olaf Stapledon, Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future, London: Methuen & Co., →OCLC:

     When rumour got afoot that in future mechanical power would be unlimited, the people expected a millennium.

4. (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.

Synonyms

• yearthousand, kiloyear (kyr), kiloannum (ka)

Derived terms

• centimillennium
• decamillennium
• light millennium
• millennial
• millennialism
• millennially
• millenniarism
• millennium bug
• millionennium

 

Translations

thousand-year period

• Afrikaans: millennium (af)
• Arabic: أَلْفِيَّة f (ʔalfiyya)
• Armenian: հազարամյակ (hy) (hazaramyak)
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܐܲܠܦܝܘܼܬܵܐ f (ālpyuta), ܡܠܹܢܝܘܿܡ m (milenyom)
• Asturian: mileniu (ast) m
• Azerbaijani: minillik
• Belarusian: тысячаго́ддзе n (tysjačahóddzje)
• Breton: milved (br) m
• Bulgarian: хилядоле́тие n (hiljadolétie)
• Burmese: ထောင်စုနှစ် (htaungcu.hnac)
• Catalan: mil·lenni (ca) m
• Cherokee: ᎠᎦᏴᎵ ᏧᏕᏘᏗ (agayvli tsudetidi)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 千年 (cin¹ nin⁴), 千紀／千纪 (cin¹ gei²)

  Mandarin: 千年 (zh) (qiānnián), 千紀／千纪 (zh) (qiānjì)

• Czech: tisíciletí (cs) n
• Danish: årtusinde (da) n, millennium n
• Dutch: millennium (nl)
• Esperanto: jarmilo
• Estonian: aastatuhat (et), millennium (et)
• Faroese: ártúsund n, túsundár n, túsundáraskeið n
• Finnish: vuosituhat (fi)
• French: millénaire (fr) m
• Friulian: mileni m
• Galician: milenio (gl) m
• Georgian: ათასწლეული (atasc̣leuli)
• German: Jahrtausend (de) n, Millennium (de) n
• Greek: χιλιετία (el) f (chilietía)
• Hebrew: מִילֶניוּם (he) m (milényum)
• Hindi: सहस्राब्दी (sahasrābdī)
• Hungarian: évezred (hu)
• Icelandic: árþúsund (is) n, þúsöld f
• Ido: yarmilo (io)
• Indonesian: milenium (id), alaf (id)
• Irish: mílaoise
• Italian: millennio (it) m
• Japanese: 千年 (ja) (sennen), 千年紀 (ja) (sennenki), 千年間 (sennenkan), 千年期 (sennenki), ミレニアム (ja) (mireniamu)
• Khmer: សហស្សវត្សរ៍ (km) (sâhssâvtsâr៍)
• Korean: 천년(千年) (ko) (cheonnyeon), 천년기(千年紀) (cheonnyeon'gi), 밀레니엄 (millenieom)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ھەزارە (hezare)

  Northern Kurdish: hezare (ku), hezarsal (ku)

• Kyrgyz: миңжылдык (miŋjıldık)
• Latin: millennium n
• Latvian: tūkstošgade f, gadu tūkstotis m
• Lithuanian: tūkstantmetis (lt) m
• Luxembourgish: Joerdausend n
• Malay: alaf (ms), milenium (ms)
• Malayalam: സഹസ്രാബ്ദം (sahasrābdaṁ)
• Norman: millénaire m (continental Normandy; Jersey: millénaithe)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: årtusen (no) n, millennium (no) n, tusenår (no) n

  Nynorsk: millennium n, tusenår n

• Occitan: millenari m
• Persian: هزاره (fa) (hezâre)
• Piedmontese: mileni m
• Polish: tysiąclecie (pl), milenium (pl) n
• Portuguese: milénio (pt) m (Portugal), milênio (pt) (Brazil)
• Romanian: mileniu (ro) n
• Russian: тысячеле́тие (ru) n (tysjačelétije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: тисућлеће n, тѝсућљеће n

  Roman: tisućleće n, tìsućljeće n

• Slovak: tisícročie n, milénium m
• Slovene: tisočletje (sl) n
• Spanish: milenio (es) m
• Swahili: milenia
• Swedish: årtusende (sv), millennium (sv)
• Tagalog: libuntaon
• Telugu: సహస్రాబ్ది (te) (sahasrābdi), వెయ్యేళ్ళు (veyyēḷḷu)
• Thai: สหัสวรรษ (th) (sà-hàt-sà-wát)
• Turkish: milenyum (tr), binyıl (tr)
• Ukrainian: тисячолі́ття n (tysjačolíttja)
• Vietnamese: thiên niên kỷ (vi)
• Volapük: milyel (vo)
• Walloon: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: mileniwm
• West Frisian: milennium

Christianity: the 1000 year reign of Christ

• Finnish: tuhatvuotinen valtakunta (fi)
• French: millénium (fr) m
• Greek: χιλιετηρίδα (el) f (chilietirída)
• Norwegian: millennium (no)
• Persian: هزاره‌ی حکومت عیسی بر جهان

period of universal happiness

• Finnish: tuhatvuotinen valtakunta (fi)
• French: millénium (fr) m
• Japanese: 至福千年, 千年王国
• Persian: دوران طلایی (dowrân talâyi)

year when a period of 1000 years ends and another begins

• Czech: milénium (cs) n
• Finnish: millennium (fi)
• Persian: هزاره‌ی سوم (hezâre-ye sevvom)
• Tagalog: libuntaon

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /milɛniɔm/, [miˈlɛnˀiɔm]

Noun

millennium n (singular definite millenniet, plural indefinite millennier)

1. millennium

Inflection

Declension of millennium

neuter gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	millennium	millenniet	millennier	millennierne
genitive	millenniums	millenniets	millenniers	millenniernes

Synonyms

• årtusinde

Further reading

• millennium on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mīllennium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌmiˈlɛ.ni.ʏm/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mil‧len‧ni‧um

Noun

millennium n (plural millennia, diminutive millenniumpje n)

1. millennium

   Synonym: jaarduizend

Latin

Etymology

From mīlle and annus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /miːlˈlen.ni.um/, [miːlˈlʲɛnːiʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /milˈlen.ni.um/, [milˈlɛnːium]

Noun

mīllennium n (genitive mīllenniī or mīllennī); second declension

1. millennium

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	mīllennium	mīllennia
Genitive	mīllenniī mīllennī1	mīllenniōrum
Dative	mīllenniō	mīllenniīs
Accusative	mīllennium	mīllennia
Ablative	mīllenniō	mīllenniīs
Vocative	mīllennium	mīllennia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Norwegian Bokmål

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

millennium n (definite singular millenniet, indefinite plural millennier, definite plural millennia or millenniene)

1. millennium

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

millennium n (definite singular millenniet, indefinite plural millennium, definite plural millennia)

1. millennium

Swedish

Noun

millennium n

1. a millennium (period of one thousand years)

   Synonym: årtusende

Declension

Declension of millennium

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	millennium	millenniums
	definite	millenniet	millenniets
plural	indefinite	millennier	millenniers
	definite	millennierna	millenniernas

See also

• år
• århundrade
• årtionde
• decennium
• sekel

References

• millennium in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• millennium in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)