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

Uiagalelei, who played at St. John Bosco High, entered with three minutes to play in the third quarter and completed six of nine passes for 120 yards and a touchdown.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

Holly: Wilson sits among some high-profile signings for the club over the summer, with the former Fulham man producing 19 goal involvements last season, 10 goals and nine assists.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

Astronaut Wally Schirra boarded the vessel wearing his personal Omega Speedmaster Professional, orbiting Earth six times over the course of nine hours.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

Of the nine that like us equally or better, just two—Hungary and Poland—are members of NATO.

From Slate ● Aug. 13, 2026

The problem with being small and nine years old and alone was that no one listened to him.

From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova

City signed him from Dortmund at 21 and he has developed into one of the world's most feared number nines.

From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026

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

From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 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

The reliability of core services on the internet is often measured in nines.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026

Silk, chiffon, and all decked out to the nines.

From "Like Vanessa" by Tami Charles