"99 problems" meaning in English

See 99 problems in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: ninety-nine problems [alternative]
Etymology: Coined by American rapper Ice-T in 1993 in the song "99 Problems" off the album Home Invasion, likely referring to 99 percent. Further popularized in Jay-Z's song "99 Problems" off The Black Album (2003). Etymology templates: {{coinage|en|Ice-T|in=1993|nat=American|occ=rapper}} Coined by American rapper Ice-T in 1993 Head templates: {{en-noun|p|head=99 problems}} 99 problems pl (plural only)
  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see 99, problems. Tags: plural, plural-only
    Sense id: en-99_problems-en-noun-u-kiCPvO
  2. (idiomatic) An innumerable amount of problems which nevertheless implies one notable matter is not considered a problem. Tags: idiomatic, plural, plural-only
    Sense id: en-99_problems-en-noun-iMDf2I0p Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English pluralia tantum, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 15 85 Disambiguation of English pluralia tantum: 24 76 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 13 87 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 11 89

Alternative forms

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Download raw JSONL data for 99 problems meaning in English (2.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.