A millennial is someone born roughly between 1981 and 1996. The name comes from the fact that this generation came of age around the year 2000, the start of the new millennium. Your parents or older siblings might be millennials.

Millennials grew up during a unique time of technological change. They remember life before the internet became widespread, but they also adapted easily to smartphones, social media, and digital communication as these technologies emerged. A millennial might recall using a telephone attached to the wall as a child, then getting their first cell phone as a teenager, and eventually carrying a smartphone everywhere as an adult.

This generation experienced major historical events like the September 11 attacks and the 2008 financial crisis during their formative years. They're sometimes called “digital pioneers” because they helped figure out how to use new technologies that didn't exist when they were born.

The word is both a noun (referring to a person from this generation) and an adjective (describing something related to this generation). You might hear someone say, “That's such a millennial thing to do,” usually referring to comfort with technology or certain cultural preferences.

Before millennials came Generation X, and after them came Generation Z.