I. ˈnīntē, -ti adjective
Etymology: Middle English nynety, nigenti, from Old English nigontig, short for hundnigontig, from hundnigontig, n., group of 90, from hund hundred + nigon nine + -tig group of ten — more at eighty
: being one more than 89 in number
ninety years
— see number table
II. pronoun, plural in construction
: ninety countable persons or things not specified but under consideration and being enumerated
ninety are here
ninety were found
III. noun
( -es )
1. : nine tens : twice 45 : three times 30 : five times 18 : six fifteens : fourscore and 10
2.
a. : 90 units or objects
a total of ninety
b. : a group or set of 90
3. : the numerable quantity symbolized by the arabic numerals 90
4. : the 90th in a set or series
5. : something having as an essential feature 90 units or numbers
6. nineties plural
a. : the numbers 90 to 99 inclusive
a golf score in the nineties
all his grades in that subject are in the nineties
b.
(1) : the members of a series or set of successive numbers that end in 90 to 99 inclusive
the nineties of the preceding century
lives in the nineties in the next block
(2) usually capitalized : the years of the last decade of the 19th century
the Gay Nineties
the so-called decadent romantics of the Nineties — Publ's Mod. Lang. Association of American
c. : the portion of a continuum lying between 90 and 100 on a scale of measurement or segmentation
temperatures in the high nineties tomorrow
a man in his nineties
overcoats selling in the nineties