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• millet
  millet

  noun

  a cereal grass, Setaria italica, extensively cultivated in the East and in southern Europe for its small seed, or grain, used as food for humans and fowls, but in the U.S. grown chiefly for fodder.
• Millet
  Millet

  noun

  Francis Davis, 1846–1912, U.S. painter, illustrator, and journalist.

millet

¹ American  

[mil-it] / ˈmɪl ɪt /

noun

• millets
  plural

1. a cereal grass, Setaria italica, extensively cultivated in the East and in southern Europe for its small seed, or grain, used as food for humans and fowls, but in the U.S. grown chiefly for fodder.

2. any of various related or similar grasses cultivated as grain plants or forage plants.

3. the grain of any of these grasses.

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Millet ² American  

[mi-lay, mee-le] / mɪˈleɪ, miˈlɛ /

noun

1. Francis Davis, 1846–1912, U.S. painter, illustrator, and journalist.

2. Jean François 1814–75, French painter.

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millet ¹ British  

/ ˈmɪlɪt /

noun

1. a cereal grass, Setaria italica, cultivated for grain and animal fodder

2. 1. an East Indian annual grass, Panicum miliaceum, cultivated for grain and forage, having pale round shiny seeds

   2. the seed of this plant

3. any of various similar or related grasses, such as pearl millet and Indian millet

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Millet ² British  

/ milɛ /

noun

1. Jean François (ʒɑ̃ frɑ̃swa). 1814–75, French painter of the Barbizon school, noted for his studies of peasants at work

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• millets
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of millet

1375–1425; late Middle English milet < Middle French, equivalent to mil (< Latin milium millet) + -et -et

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Explanation

Millet is a grain-like food that grows in grassy stalks and is a staple in both Asia and Africa. People on gluten-free diets aren't bothered by millet, which is technically a seed rather than a true grain. Pass the millet, please! Even in dry, hot conditions, millet grows easily and quickly, which has made it an important food in countries like India and Nigeria. Some East Asian countries brew beer using millet, and the Indian flatbread roti is commonly made with millet flour. Russia and Germany share a traditional millet-based food, a breakfast porridge.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

millet Millet millets

Neetu, a 28-year-old farmer, said she used the product on her pearl millet crop and cut urea application by about one-third without affecting yields.

From Barron's ● Jun. 16, 2026

It looks like charcoal, but the black briquettes are actually made from plant waste: millet and sesame stalks, palm fronds and cobs.

From Barron's ● Apr. 24, 2026

Starters can be made with wheat, rye, barley, teff, millet, or other grains, each supplying a distinct set of nutrients that microbes depend on to grow.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 21, 2026

Sometimes it is possible to find sorghum or millet but on the day of filming, the kitchen manager says: "There is no flour or bread."

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2025

With that she took a great quantity of the smallest of the seeds, wheat and poppy and millet and so on, and mixed them all together in a heap.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

"The big change, especially in my département, is that now we've got cameras assisted by artificial intelligence to watch the forest and see where fires are starting," Millet says.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

"This is a fire that makes no sense. It has no direction," Guillaume Millet of the Gironde fire and rescue service told AFP.

From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026

“It’s the start of a whole research pipeline from us,” said Google chief economist Fabien Curto Millet.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

Somewhere between Rue and Cassie on the desperation scale sits Elle Fanning’s Margo Millet, an eager community college student whose money troubles start when she falls for one of the oldest tricks in the book.

From Salon ● May 4, 2026

The twin, Burnham knew, was at that moment carrying one of his closest friends, the painter Francis Millet, over the same ocean but in the opposite direction.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

Corn farmers across the Midwest are experimenting with drought-resistant millets, while growers in Sub-Saharan Africa are embracing varieties of sorghum and legumes that require less water than other grains.

From Salon ● Jan. 30, 2025

Over centuries, millets have been cultivated around the world — including in Japan, Europe, the Americas and Australia — but their epicenter has traditionally been India, China and sub-Saharan Africa.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 9, 2023

Millet has come into fashion as a healthy alternative to wheat or rice after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization named 2023 as the International Year of millets.

From Reuters ● Sep. 9, 2023

"There is a whole group of cereals called millets - small-seeded grasses similar to oats and barley - that are more hardy, use less water and are gluten-free," she says.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2022

China had developed intensive agriculture based on millets in the north and rice in the south, and with domestic pigs, chickens, and water buffalo.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

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