MILLENNIAL
/məˈlɛn.i.əl/Accepted in official NYT Spelling Bee puzzle years: 2025
Meaning
Thousand-year-old; also (by extension, loosely) thousands of years old.
Etymology
Origin: Latin
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.
Synonyms & Antonyms
NYT Puzzle Appearances
Accepted in 1 recorded puzzle: