Ninth

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Pronunciation: /naɪnθ/

Definitions

1. The ordinal number that comes after eighth and before tenth in a sequence or ranking
2. The position in a sequence that follows the eighth item and precedes the tenth item in an ordered list
3. Referring to the element that is ranked after the eighth and before the tenth in any given arrangement

Etymology: The ordinal "ninth" is a good example of a word whose spelling has drifted away from its sound. Its Old English ancestor, "niġoþa," had no n in the middle, and the word was pronounced closer to "nee-oh-tha." The -n- that appears today was added back in the Middle English period, when speakers began to pattern it on "nine," the cardinal number it was built from. So the spelling and pronunciation of the modern word reflect a sort of spelling-by-analogy rather than an unbroken line of sound. The word is simply "nine" with the suffix "-th," which turns a cardinal number into an ordinal. This is the same suffix found in "fourth," "fifth," "sixth," and "seventh," and it is the regular way English forms ordinals above "third." The older Germanic root behind "niġoþa" was *newundô, which means the same thing and shows the number's ancestry across the Germanic languages.

Synonyms: 9th