"nine-tenths" meaning in English

See nine-tenths in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˌnʌɪnˈtɛnθs/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˌnaɪnˈtɛnθs/ [US]
enPR: nīn'tĕnthsʹ [US] Etymology: nine + tenths Etymology templates: {{m|en|nine}} nine, {{m|en|tenth|tenths}} 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 Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 21 79 Disambiguation of English pluralia tantum: 26 74
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: 9/10ths [uncommon] Derived forms: possession is nine-tenths of the law

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for nine-tenths meaning in English (1.6kB)

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "possession is nine-tenths of the law"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "nine"
      },
      "expansion": "nine",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "tenth",
        "3": "tenths"
      },
      "expansion": "tenths",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "nine + tenths",
  "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": "21 79",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "26 74",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English pluralia tantum",
          "parents": [
            "Pluralia tantum",
            "Nouns",
            "Lemmas"
          ],
          "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": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌnʌɪnˈtɛnθs/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌnaɪnˈtɛnθs/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "enpr": "nīn'tĕnthsʹ",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "tags": [
        "uncommon"
      ],
      "word": "9/10ths"
    }
  ],
  "word": "nine-tenths"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English 2-syllable words",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English pluralia tantum",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "possession is nine-tenths of the law"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "nine"
      },
      "expansion": "nine",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "tenth",
        "3": "tenths"
      },
      "expansion": "tenths",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "nine + tenths",
  "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": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌnʌɪnˈtɛnθs/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌnaɪnˈtɛnθs/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "enpr": "nīn'tĕnthsʹ",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "uncommon"
      ],
      "word": "9/10ths"
    }
  ],
  "word": "nine-tenths"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-24 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (82c8ff9 and f4967a5). 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.