Millennium (spelling)

The word millennium is often mis-spelled. It is derived from Latin. The double 'l' comes from the mille meaning a thousand (giving us the prefix 'mille-' or 'milli-' in such words as 'millimetre); the double 'n' comes from enn-, an older form of the word annu- meaning 'a year', which can be seen in the full form of the abbreviation p. a.: per annum. For a different root in Latin, with a different spelling, see the note on 'centenary' at -ennium

Because millennium is a Latin word, academics often prefer to see the plural in its Latin form: millennia. (Because it is also an English word, it does not need to be in italics. Indeed, some modern writers would say that for this reason, 'millenniums' is correct. We don't agree: for the purposes of academic writing, we prefer millennia. This still has 2 '-l-'s and two '-n-'s. (See -um in Latin for an explanation.)

For details on just exactly when the current millennium began, see century.

This page was suggested by the list of "25 of the most commonly misspelled words in the English language", in the article on "spelling" in Garner, Bryan A., The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style, Oxford University Press, 2000; on line at Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press, under licence to Hull University. 18 July 2006. <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t26.e2017>. Although the list claims "25 of the most commonly misspelled words in the English language", it may reflect the American language of the book rather than AWE's experience of English teaching in Britain. Users of AWE may find more use in our categories spelling and spelling common errors.

AWE shares the confidence of the original article: "Naturally, [the commonly misspelled words] are spelled correctly here".