millennial

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’).
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.

coinage

Michael Dimock (2019 January 17) “Defining generations: Where Millennials end and Generation Z begins”, in Pew Research Center, archived from the original on 2020-06-01.

semiannual · annual · biennial · triennial · quadrennial · quinquennial

quintennial · sextennial · septennial · octennial · novennial · decennary

decennial · sesquidecennial · centennial · sesquicentennial · bicentennial · tricentennial · quadricentennial · bimillennial · trimillennial · quadrimillennial · decamillennial

the millennial generation

He was suffering from a typical millennial problem: Which is the correct emoji to use?

Boomers played cassettes in their cars and popularized FM radio. Thirteeners love their compact disks. Today's electronics industry is abuzz with talk of the new digital technology that awaits Millennial teenagers.

1991, William Strauss, Neil Howe, “The Past as Prologue”, in Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, part III (The Future), page 352:

When the staccato, Neptunes-ian single "Boyfriend" was released in March, musical prognosticators were quick to peg the album it portended, Believe, as Justin Bieber's Justified, a grown-and-sexy, R&B-centric departure that evolved millennial teenybopper Justin Timberlake into one of the unifying pop-music figures of the aughts.

2012 June 26, Genevieve Koski, “Justin Bieber: Believe”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2023-04-05:

Many people, or at least a handful of very loud people, hate to being dubbed Millennial. They see it as derogatory.

2015 August 24, Samantha Sharf, “What is a ‘Millennial’ Anyway? Meet the Man who Coined the Phrase”, in Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-09-29:

But, while many have jumped to label the astrology boom as another millennial trend, that may not actually be the case.

2018 March 22, Wilder Davies, “Mercury Is Entering Retrograde Again. This Is Why So Many People Care”, in Time:

We make hits / Two broke millennial men / And we'd do it again

2024, “We Make Hits”, in James Smith (lyrics), Where's My Utopia?, performed by Yard Act:

(by extension, originally US, demography) 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.

millenniaali-

the millennial judgment

VVhereas the very Povver of the Civil Magisſtrate and his ſecurity is hazarded by vvild and hot-ſpirited men, that vvould raiſe a Fifth Monarchie by Bloud and Rapine, and tumble dovvn all Government, […] and that they are the Pioners to level all plain, and break all Government in pieces, that Chriſt, the Fifth Monarch, may perſonally come and begin his Millennial Empire upon Earth; […]

1660, H[enry] More, chapter XVII, in An Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness; […], London: […] J[ames] Flesher, for W[illiam] Morden […], →OCLC, book I, page 204:

This is that illuſtrious Reign of Chriſt in his Millennial Empire of Love, vvhen the Chriſtian life ſhall take place, and Opinions and Perſecutions ſhall be done avvay.

1669, Henry More, “[https://books.google.com/books?id=6ipkAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP70 The Preface to the Reader, […]]”, in An Exposition of the Seven Epistles to the Seven Churches; […], London: […] James Flesher, →OCLC:

But their reciprocal, unſelfiſh Aid, / Affords an Emblem of Millennial Love.

1745, [Edward Young], “Night the Ninth and Last. The Consolation. Containing, among Other Things, I. A Moral Survey of the Nocturnal Heavens. II. A Night-Address to the Deity. […]”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] [Samuel Richardson] for A[ndrew] Millar […], and R[obert] Dodsley […], published 1750, →OCLC, page 320:

Every tenant was quite sure things would be different when the reins got into his hands—there was to be a millennial abundance of new gates, allowances of lime, and returns of ten per cent.

1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “The Dairy”, in Adam Bede […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first, page 156:

millenarian

(Christianity) 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”)


millennial

Someday, Boomers hope, Millennials will build according to great ideals their parents can only envision, act on vital issues their parents can only ponder.

1991, William Strauss, Neil Howe, “The Millennial Cycle”, in Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, part III (The Future), page 342:

Meet the Millennials, born in or after 1982—the "Babies on Board" of the early [Ronald] Reagan years, the "Have You Hugged Your Child Today?" sixth graders of the early [Bill] Clinton years, the teens of Columbine, and, this year, the much-touted high school Class of 2000, now invading the nation's campuses.

2000 September, Neil Howe, William Strauss, “The Next Great Generation”, in Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 4:

When we saw Millennials as kids being raised so differently, we could already make an easy prediction. We had seen this dark to bright contrast in child upbringing before many times in American history, so we already foresaw that by the time you got to 2000 you would see huge changes in people in their late teens and early 20s.

2015 August 24, Samantha Sharf, quoting Neil Howe, “What is a ‘Millennial’ Anyway? Meet the Man who Coined the Phrase”, in Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-09-29:

In a bumper for a newsmagazine program, a reporter muses: “[It’s] the year of the yuppie, but what is a yuppie?” That’s right, fellow millennials: Not long ago, young people had so much economic opportunity that their generation was defined by its upward mobility.

2020 June 25, Eve Peyser, “In vintage TV ads, a curious fountain of hope (and cheese)”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-08-20:

(originally US, demography) 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.


Generation Y

Using Y as the letter that follows X, as in Generation X.

Pew Research Center
w:Pew Research Center

The generation of people born between the early 1980s and mid-1990s (with 1996 births cited as the last Millennial year), following Generation X.

generació Y

generation of people born in the 1980s and 1990s


echo boomer

By 2010, there will be 70 million potential drivers among the echo boomers born from 1977 to 1994.

2002 March 31, Michelle Krebs, “Youth Will Be Served at This Year's New York Auto Show”, in New York Times, retrieved 2010-08-30:

(demographics) A child of a member of the post-World War II baby boom generation, born in the period extending approximately from the late 1970s or early 1980s to the mid-1990s.


Peter Pan generation

Coined by American sociologist Kathleen Shaputis, because of the members' perceived tendency for delaying some rites of passage into adulthood.


xennial

I was born in 1980. According to some sources, this makes me a Gen Xer. According to others, I’m a Millennial. That makes me what then, a Xennial? I take online quizzes, like Pew Research Center’s “How Millennial Are You?”, and land dead between Gen X and Millennial due to my personal habits, body piercings, and so many more reasons.

2014 September 25, Sarah Stankorb, “Glad to be a Xennial”, in GOOD:

Xennial is a term that I first used in a 2014 story for GOOD magazine, following on the heels of writers like Doree Shafrir, who in 2011 called this cusp generation’s pop-cultural misfit status Generation Catalano, after crowdsourcing the My So-Called Life–inspired term from Danielle Nussbaum on Twitter.

2017 July 6, Sarah Stankorb, “I Made Up Xennial 3 Years Ago, So Why Is a Professor in Australia Getting All the Credit?”, in Vogue:

But there's this new group, you may know them — that microgeneration sandwiched between — who feel like they don't really belong to either group […] Love it or hate it, there's a newish name for these lost souls: the "xennials" (pronounced ZEE-knee-als).

2017 November 10, Dwight Adams, “You're a xennial — if you're caught between Generation X and millennials”, in Indianapolis Star:

I’m a reluctant millennial myself (or possibly — God forbid — an xennial), stuck in the pretty common category of not identifying with my so-called generation.

2023 April 20, Casey Schwartz, “Jean Twenge is ready to make you defend your generation again”, in The Washington Post:

Oregon Trail Generation
Oregon Trail Generation

(informal) A person born late in Generation X or early in Generation Y, that is, sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s; a member of the Oregon Trail Generation.


millennial pink

en-noun

millennial pink (countable and uncountable, plural millennial pinks)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-millennial pink.wav

Named for its popularity in fashion and design in the late 2010s among millennials.

Millennial pink is a streetwear staple.

2017, Lisa De Pasquale, The Social Justice Warrior Handbook: A Practical Survival Guide for Snowflakes, Millennials, and Generation Z, page 23:

[…] when they talk about their jobs or their dating lives or how they're secretly kind of sick of millennial pink.

2018, Rebecca Soffer, Gabrielle Birkner, Modern Loss: Candid Conversation About Grief, unnumbered page:

Millennial pink started to crop up around 2012, and by 2015 it was ubiquitous.

2019, Kaye Blegvad, The Pink Book: An Illustrated Celebration of the Color, from Bubblegum to Battleships, page 76:

millennial pink:


millennial pink

But on Instagram she found a world of recovery houses — many of them decorated in a millennial pink, hyperfeminine aesthetic — where she would be healing alongside other women who had just gone through the same procedure and would be cared for by a team of women who would cook for her, […]

2022 May 11, Sandra E. Garcia, “Butt Lifts Are Booming. Healing Is No Joke.”, in The New York Times Magazine:


baby boomlet

Over a long-term period, population growth would be affected by changing birth rates due to shifts in social values and movement of age cohorts such as baby-boomers and baby-boomlets through the child-bearing years.

2000, Washington State Labor Area Summaries - Volume 15, page 12:

Baby boomlets (consumers born between 1977 and 1997 and also known as "Gen Y") have emerged as the next cohort since the baby boomers to receive the close attention of retailers (Bounds, 2000).

2002, Journal of Retailing - Volume 78, page 78:

My fellow baby boomlets also engaged in strong civic engagement.

2013, M. Babula, Motivation, Altruism, Personality and Social Psychology:

Baby boomers, baby busters, and baby boomlets view God in action differently than the generations of slavery, convict leasing, the civil rights movement, and the War on Drugs.

2014, Rev. Roger W. Baker, Who Authorized You to Quit?::

A child of a baby boomer, born during the baby boomlet.


Millennial

Boomers played cassettes in their cars and popularized FM radio. Thirteeners love their compact disks. Today's electronics industry is abuzz with talk of the new digital technology that awaits Millennial teenagers.

1991, William Strauss, Neil Howe, “The Past as Prologue”, in Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, part III (The Future), page 352:

Many people, or at least a handful of very loud people, hate to being dubbed Millennial. They see it as derogatory.

2015 August 24, Samantha Sharf, “What is a ‘Millennial’ Anyway? Meet the Man who Coined the Phrase”, in Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-09-29:

Alternative letter-case form of millennial


Millennial

Someday, Boomers hope, Millennials will build according to great ideals their parents can only envision, act on vital issues their parents can only ponder.

1991, William Strauss, Neil Howe, “The Millennial Cycle”, in Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, part III (The Future), page 342:

Meet the Millennials, born in or after 1982—the "Babies on Board" of the early [Ronald] Reagan years, the "Have You Hugged Your Child Today?" sixth graders of the early [Bill] Clinton years, the teens of Columbine, and, this year, the much-touted high school Class of 2000, now invading the nation's campuses.

2000 September, Neil Howe, William Strauss, “The Next Great Generation”, in Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 4:

When we saw Millennials as kids being raised so differently, we could already make an easy prediction. We had seen this dark to bright contrast in child upbringing before many times in American history, so we already foresaw that by the time you got to 2000 you would see huge changes in people in their late teens and early 20s.

2015 August 24, Samantha Sharf, quoting Neil Howe, “What is a ‘Millennial’ Anyway? Meet the Man who Coined the Phrase”, in Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-09-29:


Zillennial

Coordinate term: xennial

These and other differences raise larger questions: How did Zillennials come to be this way? At what point did their tactics diverge?

2019, Robby Soave, Panic Attack: Young Radicals in the Age of Trump:

Such widespread inequality calls for an urgent requirement for leaders to change, especially because the new workforce – Millennials and Zillennials – are demanding such change, in their droves.

2019, Leila McKenzie Delis, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging, page 23:

2023 June 6, Nadira Goffe, “A Zillennial Comedian Is Creating Taylor Swift–Style Chaos on Ticketmaster. Who Is Matt Rife?”, in Slate, retrieved 2023-06-06:

A person born on the cusp of, or during the latter years of Generation Y/Millennials and early years of Generation Z. They are cultural hybrids of both generations.


Gen Y

If you are a member of Gen Y, you probably feel right at home working with computers and digital media.

2008, Dianne Bender, Design Portfolios: Moving from Traditional to Digital, Fairchild Books, →ISBN, page 40:

Since "entitlement" has been a word consistently used to describe the attitude Millennials bring with them, this chapter explains why this perception of Gen Y is rampant and what being entitled means to them.

2013, Diane E. Spiegel, The Gen Y Handbook: Applying Relationship Leadership to Engage Millennials, SelectBooks, →ISBN:

According to [Mark] McCrindle, “Gen Alpha will likely stay in education longer, start their earning years later and so stay at home with their parents later than even their predecessors, Gen Z and Gen Y.[…]”

2022, Tim Elmore, A New Kind of Diversity: Making the Different Generations on Your Team a Competitive Advantage, Maxwell Leadership, →ISBN, pages 271–272:


Gen Y

Gen Ys grew up in a media-saturated postmodern world where technology was pervasive.

2013, Pierre Benckendorff, Gianna Moscardo, “Generational cohorts and ecotourism”, in Roy Ballantyne, Jan Packer, editors, International Handbook on Ecotourism, Edward Elgar Publishing, →ISBN, page 141:

Growing up, Gen Ys were bombarded with messages, more than any other generation. Due to the 24/7 nature of news and information and with their tech savvy skills and links into social media, they are connected and move forward with high expectations.

Due to the low unemployment rate in Australia and New Zealand and the high demand for skilled workers, many organisations are going out of their way to employ Gen Ys.

2015, Stephen P. Robbins, Rolf Bergman, Ian Stagg, Mary Coulter, Management, Pearson Australia, →ISBN, page 558:


mileniál

cs-noun

mileniál m anim (female equivalent mileniálka)

mileniálka (feminine)
mileniál (nominative singular)
mileniálové (nominative plural)
mileniála (genitive singular)
mileniálů (genitive plural)
mileniálovi (dative singular)
mileniálu (dative singular)
mileniálům (dative plural)
mileniála (accusative singular)
mileniály (accusative plural)
mileniále (singular vocative)
mileniálové (plural vocative)
mileniálovi (locative singular)
mileniálu (locative singular)
mileniálech (locative plural)
mileniálem (instrumental singular)
mileniály (instrumental plural)

Borrowed from English millennial, from Late Latin mīllennium.

millennial (person from the generation born in the last two decades of the 20th century)


geriatric millennial

en-noun

geriatric millennial (plural geriatric millennials)

Coined by American writer, public speaker, and business consultant Erica Dhawan.

coin

Like me, Monahan is a geriatric millennial, but while it remains to be seen if I will shift, he has already moved forward.

2022 February 16, Allison P. Davis, “A Vibe Shift Is Coming – Will any of us survive it?”, in New York, →ISSN:

(humorous) A person born in the early 1980s; a xennial.