Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to a thousand, especially to a thousand years.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or believing in the doctrine of the millennium.
  • noun One who believes the millennium will occur.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Relating or pertaining to a thousand, specifically to an expected millennial period of righteousness on earth; chiliastic: as, millenarian speculations.
  • noun One who believes in the millennium; more specifically, one who believes that Christ will visibly reign on earth with his saints for a thousand years or for an indefinite period of time before the end of the world; a chiliast. See millennium.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who believes that Christ will personally reign on earth a thousand years; a Chiliast.
  • adjective Consisting of a thousand years; of or pertaining to the millennium, or to the Millenarians.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Lasting or expected to last a thousand years.
  • noun A person who believes in an apocalyptic millennium, an Adventist.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a person who believes in the coming of the millennium (a time of great peace and prosperity)
  • adjective relating to or believing in the millennium of peace and happiness

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin millenarius +‎ -an.

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Examples

  • These are the narratives of what anthropologists call millenarian movements -- cargo cults in Melanesia, or the American Indian Ghost Dances of the 19th century.

    Paul Stoller: Enraptured Politics Paul Stoller 2011

  • These are the narratives of what anthropologists call millenarian movements -- cargo cults in Melanesia, or the American Indian Ghost Dances of the 19th century.

    Paul Stoller: Enraptured Politics Paul Stoller 2011

  • These are the narratives of what anthropologists call millenarian movements -- cargo cults in Melanesia, or the American Indian Ghost Dances of the 19th century.

    Paul Stoller: Enraptured Politics Paul Stoller 2011

  • These are the narratives of what anthropologists call millenarian movements -- cargo cults in Melanesia, or the American Indian Ghost Dances of the 19th century.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Paul Stoller 2011

  • That resistance, conventionally called millenarian, is in fact sacramental.

    MRZine.org 2008

  • That resistance, conventionally called millenarian, is in fact sacramental.

    MRZine.org 2008

  • At worst, he is fueled by some kind of millenarian impulse, determined to go down in flames and to take his people with him as some kind of last stand against the long-dead scourge of colonialism.

    Mbeki and Mugabe 2008

  • At worst, he is fueled by some kind of millenarian impulse, determined to go down in flames and to take his people with him as some kind of last stand against the long-dead scourge of colonialism.

    Mbeki and Mugabe 2008

  • Modern-day jihadists are not; they live in the modern era which, while managing to appease violent "millenarian" tendencies in Christians, has evidently not managed to sate Muslim impulses.

    Jihad Watch 2009

  • You will get a chuckle over this millenarian zealot's idea that capitalism leads to poverty and socialism leads to wealth, peace, justice and plenty.

    MIND MELD: Non-Genre Books for Genre Readers 2009

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