Milieu   (pronounced meel-yoo, mil-yoo, meel-yuh, or meel-yoo) noun


Definition
an environment or setting, especially a person's social, cultural, or physical surroundings.

Main Example

  • What explains the Democrats' poor showing in last month's midterm election? "The post-Sept. 11 milieu," say many analysts. They point out that, for the past 50 years, a majority of Americans have regarded Republicans as being more effective on defense and Democrats as being stronger on domestic issues. In the present environment, people's concern for national security trumped everything else.

    Workplace Examples

  • He is very flexible and extremely versatile, having worked in many different milieus ranging from humanitarian organizations such as the United Way, to the dog-eat-dog world of Wall Street.

  • Now, don't be too hard on your teenage daughter for not showing much allegiance to your Turkish Moslem traditions. Remember that, unlike you, she has grown up in an American--more specifically, a concentrated all-white Protestant--milieu.

    Other Examples

  • a workplace milieu that discourages employees from rocking the boat or challenging the boss

  • a recent movie about the Beatles' rise to fame successfully capturing the 1960s milieu by employing the color, light, texture, and other elements of that era; several of Martin Scorsese's films being set in a mob milieu

  • the trial of the Washington D.C.-area snipers being moved to Virginia because the milieu there is more conducive to prosecutors winning a death sentence

  • to perpetuate his reign of terror, Joseph Stalin successfully creating a social milieu in which children proudly told against their parents who, consequently, were marched off to labor camps in Siberia

    © 2002 V.J. Singal

    This Month's Other Words

    Fillip
    Dissemble
    Indefatigable
    Dearth
    Irksome
    Coalesce
    Acrimonious and Acrimony

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