Other forms: nines
Nine is the number after eight and before ten — the last of the single digits, and the number of players in a baseball team.
It is straightforward to say and to spell, which cannot be said of its family: ninth drops the e, nineteen and ninety keep it, and ninety is spelled without an e in the middle where eighty has no such trap. Ninth is the one to watch — nine minus e plus th. A few useful phrases: dressed to the nines means very smartly dressed, nine times out of ten means almost always, and the whole nine yards means everything, from an origin nobody has ever established.
1nounnineThe number 9.
“There are nine of them altogether.”
2nounoclockNine o'clock.
“The doors open at nine.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
nine is a number.
Old English nigon goes back through Proto-Germanic to Proto-Indo-European *newn, which also gives Latin novem and Greek ennea. It is close enough to the root for new that some have suspected a link — nine as the new number after a count of eight — though nothing proves it.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₁néwn̥
Middle English
nyn
English, today
nine
From Middle English nyn. From Middle English nyn, nyne, from Old English nigon (“nine”), from Proto-West Germanic neun, from Proto-Germanic newun (“nine”), from Proto-Indo-European h₁néwn̥ (“nine”). Cognate with Scots neen, nine (“nine”), stq njúgen (“nine”), West Frisian njoggen (“nine”), Dutch negen (“nine”), German Low German negen (“nine”), German neun (“nine”), Danish ni (“nine”), Swedish nio (“nine”), Icelandic níu (“nine”), Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌿𐌽 (“nine”), Latin novem (“nine”), Ancient Greek ἐννέα (“nine”), Sanskrit नव (“nine”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA