millet

(noun)

Any of a group of various types of grass or its grains used as food, widely cultivated in the developing world.

Related Terms

Examples of millet in the following topics:

  • The Mythical Period

    • The Neolithic Chinese cultivated a number of crops; the most important was a grain called millet.

  • The Role of Foreign Trade

    • This included sweet potatoes, maize, and peanuts, foods that could be cultivated in lands where traditional Chinese staple crops—wheat, millet, and rice—couldn't grow, hence facilitating a rise in the population of China.

  • Naming of the Byzantine Empire

    • The name millet-i Rûm, or "Roman nation," was used by the Ottomans through the 20th century to refer to the former subjects of the Byzantine Empire, that is, the Orthodox Christian community within Ottoman realms.

  • The Swahili Culture

    • Grains (principally millet and rice), meats (cattle, poultry) and other necessary supplies to feed the large city populations had to be purchased from the Bantu peoples of the interior.