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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-ley, 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

Etymology

Origin of millet

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

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

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

By then American painters were studying in Paris; they knew Courbet and Millet, and soon enough would know Pissarro and Monet.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 1, 2026

Ms. Millet is efficient and empathetic in her prose, but her message—that we must reckon with environmental catastrophe and our own moral complacency—blows through this novel like its own bracing storm.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 4, 2026

Millet plays with the title and with the idea of atavism, in which an ancient trait asserts itself by skipping forward a few generations to suddenly appear in the gene pool.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 18, 2025

And a request: Will Theo please send him any prints he has by some artists Vincent admires, including Jean-Francois Millet and Jules Breton, on whose studio door he was too timid to knock.

From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman