nine

American  

[nahyn] / naɪn /

noun

• nines
  plural

1. a cardinal number, eight plus one.

2. a symbol for this number, as 9 or IX.

3. a set of this many persons or things.

4. a baseball team.

5. a playing card with nine pips.

6. the Nine, the Muses.

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adjective

1. amounting to nine in number.

idioms

1. dressed to the nines, looking one's best; dressed smartly, splendidly, etc..

   All the girls were dressed to the nines for the party.

nine British  

/ naɪn /

noun

1. the cardinal number that is the sum of one and eight See also number

2. a numeral, 9, IX, etc, representing this number

3. something representing, represented by, or consisting of nine units, such as a playing card with nine symbols on it

4. Also: nine o'clock. nine hours after noon or midnight

   the play starts at nine

5. informal elaborately dressed

6. (in Britain) the telephone number of the emergency services

7. normal office hours

   he works nine to five

   a nine-to-five job

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determiner

1. 1. amounting to nine

      nine days

   2. ( as pronoun )

      nine of the ten are ready

nine More Idioms  

1. see dressed to kill (to the nines); on cloud nine; possession is nine points of the law; whole nine yards.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• nines
  plural

Etymology

Origin of nine

before 900; Middle English; Old English nigan, nigon, cognate with Dutch negen, akin to German neun, Old Norse nīu, Gothic niun, Latin novem, Greek ennéa, Sanskrit náva

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

nine nines

The new game took nearly 14 months to bring to market compared with roughly nine months to create a game in China, and with an $80 price tag.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

The WSJ Dollar Index rose 0.2% — up nine of the past 11 trading days.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

The strategist estimate that diesel would be stored up after nine to ten weeks, and possibly sooner.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026

The following year, aged nine, she was selected to represent England at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest.

From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026

They took four dog sleds and nine kayaks.

From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell

"How many nines of reliability do you need to scale?"

From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026

Arnold spoke to Haaland after the final whistle and revealed: "I just said to him: 'You're one of the best number nines I've ever seen.' He's so strong, so quick and he's just lethal."

From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026

Across the country, the end of exam season marks the start of parties and proms for year 11 and 13 students, all keen to dress to the nines and arrive in style.

From BBC ● May 21, 2026

He recalls the crowd in particular: “Everyone was dressed to the nines … it was an atmosphere I had never experienced before,” he says.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026

She’s dressed to the nines like always, in a color-splashed Floating Dress that makes her look like a billowy sunset, and enormous tortoiseshell movie-star sunglasses.

From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson