"nine-tenths" meaning in English

See nine-tenths in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˌnʌɪnˈtɛnθs/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˌnaɪnˈtɛnθs/ [US] Forms: 9/10ths [alternative]
enPR: nīn'tĕnthsʹ [Received-Pronunciation], nīn'tĕnthsʹ [US] Etymology: nine + tenths Head templates: {{en-noun|p|head=nine-tenths}} nine-tenths pl (plural only)
  1. (literally) Nine parts out of ten; 90%; 9/10. Tags: literally, plural, plural-only
    Sense id: en-nine-tenths-en-noun-rmQzRl83
  2. (loosely) Almost all; the vast majority. Tags: broadly, plural, plural-only
    Sense id: en-nine-tenths-en-noun-tYTDDl0l 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: 42 58 Disambiguation of English pluralia tantum: 41 59 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 43 57 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 44 56
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: possession is nine-tenths of the law

Alternative forms

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "possession is nine-tenths of the law"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "nine + tenths",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "9/10ths",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "p",
        "head": "nine-tenths"
      },
      "expansion": "nine-tenths pl (plural only)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Nine parts out of ten; 90%; 9/10."
      ],
      "id": "en-nine-tenths-en-noun-rmQzRl83",
      "links": [
        [
          "part",
          "part"
        ],
        [
          "ten",
          "ten"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(literally) Nine parts out of ten; 90%; 9/10."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "literally",
        "plural",
        "plural-only"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "42 58",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "41 59",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English pluralia tantum",
          "parents": [
            "Pluralia tantum",
            "Nouns",
            "Lemmas"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "43 57",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "44 56",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Almost all; the vast majority."
      ],
      "id": "en-nine-tenths-en-noun-tYTDDl0l",
      "links": [
        [
          "majority",
          "majority"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(loosely) Almost all; the vast majority."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "plural",
        "plural-only"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "nīn'tĕnthsʹ",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌnʌɪnˈtɛnθs/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "enpr": "nīn'tĕnthsʹ",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌnaɪnˈtɛnθs/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "nine-tenths"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English pluralia tantum",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "possession is nine-tenths of the law"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "nine + tenths",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "9/10ths",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "p",
        "head": "nine-tenths"
      },
      "expansion": "nine-tenths pl (plural only)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Nine parts out of ten; 90%; 9/10."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "part",
          "part"
        ],
        [
          "ten",
          "ten"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(literally) Nine parts out of ten; 90%; 9/10."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "literally",
        "plural",
        "plural-only"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Almost all; the vast majority."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "majority",
          "majority"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(loosely) Almost all; the vast majority."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "plural",
        "plural-only"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "nīn'tĕnthsʹ",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌnʌɪnˈtɛnθs/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "enpr": "nīn'tĕnthsʹ",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌnaɪnˈtɛnθs/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "nine-tenths"
}

Download raw JSONL data for nine-tenths meaning in English (1.2kB)

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  "called_from": "form_description/20250107",
  "msg": "Form tags without form: desc='plural plural-only', tagsets=[('plural', 'plural-only')]",
  "path": [
    "nine-tenths"
  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "noun",
  "title": "nine-tenths",
  "trace": ""
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-21 using wiktextract (7c21d10 and f2e72e5). 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.