Treadmill

How to spell treadmill

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce treadmill

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does treadmill mean?

1. nounAn exercise machine with a continuous moving belt on which a person walks or runs while staying in place.
2. nounA monotonous, exhausting routine that seems to lead nowhere.

Treadmill in a sentence

• She ran three miles on the gym treadmill before breakfast.

• After ten years in the same office, he felt trapped on a daily treadmill.

• The physiotherapist set the treadmill to a gentle incline for his recovery.

• The endless treadmill of meetings and emails left her drained by Friday.

Where does treadmill come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound joining 'tread', from the Old English verb 'tredan' meaning 'to step or walk on', with 'mill', a word that traces back through Old English 'mylen' to the Latin 'mola', a grinding mill. The combined form appeared in the early 1800s to name a grim piece of prison machinery: a large wheel with steps around its rim that convicts had to climb endlessly, the walking motion driving a mill or pump as a form of hard labour. Over the nineteenth century the literal device fell out of use, but the word survived as a vivid metaphor for any dull, exhausting, repetitive routine. In the twentieth century it was revived in a friendlier sense for the exercise machine with a moving belt that you walk or run on. The spelling stays faithful to its two ordinary parts, so the only real trap is remembering that 'mill' keeps its double l.

How the word is built

• tread (to step, from Old English tredan)
• mill (a machine for grinding, from Latin mola via Old English mylen)