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.
any of various related or similar grasses cultivated as grain plants or forage plants.
the grain of any of these grasses.
Francis Davis, 1846–1912, U.S. painter, illustrator, and journalist.
Jean François 1814–75, French painter.
a cereal grass, Setaria italica, cultivated for grain and animal fodder
an East Indian annual grass, Panicum miliaceum, cultivated for grain and forage, having pale round shiny seeds
the seed of this plant
any of various similar or related grasses, such as pearl millet and Indian millet
1375–1425; late Middle English milet < Middle French, equivalent to mil (< Latin milium millet) + -et -et
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.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
In the experiment, 100 farmers each grew two millet plots each -- one treated with nitrogen fertilizer and one left untreated for comparison.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 24, 2026
I became obsessed with "waakye" - a dish made from rice and black-eyed peas, often cooked with millet leaves, giving it a distinctive purple-brown colour.
From BBC ● Mar. 15, 2025
The first cereal was probably millet—not the millet eaten today, which originated in Africa, but a cousin species, knotweed bristle- grass, which is no longer farmed.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
"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
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
Burnham and Millet had lobbied strongly for Henry Bacon of New York, and Burnham believed that his earlier talk to the Lincoln Commission had been persuasive.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
"So far, we have learnt that the people of Keeladi were involved in agriculture, trade and cattle-rearing. They kept deer, goats and wild pigs and ate lots of rice and millets," says Prof Kumaresan.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2025
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
Yayoi farmers may have practiced double-cropping, with paddies irrigated for rice production in the summer, then the same fields drained for dry-land cultivation of millets, barley, and wheat in the winter.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
