migliaio

thousand

noun mee-LYAH-yoh Less Common

Origin: from Latin 'milliarium'

Usage Note

Migliaio is grammatically masculine in the singular but takes an irregular feminine plural, le migliaia. Use it for rough counts: un migliaio di persone ('about a thousand people'), where centinaia and migliaia always govern di.

Examples

"C'era un migliaio di persone."

Natural Translation

There were about a thousand people.

Literal Translation

There-was a thousand of people.

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