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millennium

/milenim/

  • noun (pl. millennia or millenniums) 1 a period of a thousand years, especially when calculated from the traditional date of the birth of Christ. 2 (the millennium) the point at which one period of a thousand years ends and another begins. 3 (the millennium) Christian Theology the prophesied thousand-year reign of Christ at the end of the age. 4 an anniversary of a thousand years.

  — USAGE The correct spelling is millennium, with two ns. The spelling with one n is a common error, formed by confusion with other words such as millenarian, correctly spelled with only one n. The differences in spelling are explained by different origins. Millennium was formed by analogy with words like biennium, while millenarian was formed on the Latin milleni ‘a thousand each’.

  — ORIGIN from Latin mille ‘thousand’ + annus ‘year’.

 

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