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millennial

mil·len·ni·al/məˈlɛn.i.əl/adjective, noun

millennial is spelled M-I-L-L-E-N-N-I-A-L: 10 letters and 4 syllables (mil·len·ni·al). It appears 2.1 times per million words in written English, the 18,811th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, millennial means “Thousand-year-old; also (by extension, loosely) thousands of years old” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in millennial?

Letters10: M-I-L-L-E-N-N-I-A-L
Syllables4: mil·len·ni·al
In writing2.1 times per million words; the 18,811th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is millennial?

Millennial appears 2.1 times per million words in written English, the 18,811th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce millennial?

  • UK /mɪˈlɛn.ɪ.əl/
  • US /məˈlɛn.i.əl/

Millennial has 4 syllables, split mil·len·ni·al in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-millennial.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with millennial?

2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as millennial from its last stressed vowel (/ɛniəl/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of millennial

  • millennials plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does millennial mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Thousand-year-old; also (by extension, loosely) thousands of years old.

  2. 2

    Occurring every thousand years.

  3. 3

    Occurring at, or relating to, the beginning or end of a millennium.

  4. 4

    Referring to the thousandth anniversary of an event or happening.

    a millennial fair

  5. 5

    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.

    the millennial generation

  6. 6

    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”).

    the millennial judgment

noun

  1. 1

    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.

  2. 2

    obsoleterareA thousandth anniversary; also, a celebration of such an anniversary.

adjective

as Millennial
  1. 1

    Alternative letter-case form of millennial.

noun

as Millennial
  1. 1

    Alternative letter-case form of millennial.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Millennial in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmillénaire (thousand-year-old; thousands of years old), millénial, millénarial (person from the generation born in the last two…)
Germantausendjährig (thousand-year-old; thousands of years old), Millennial (person from the generation born in the last two…)
Spanishmilenario (thousand-year-old; thousands of years old), millennial, milenial, milénico, milénica, milenita (person from the generation born in the last two…)
Portuguesemilenar (referring to the thousandth anniversary of an…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does millennial come from?

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’). Adjective 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.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after millennial