nine · ix · 9

nine is the last of the single digits. after this, the counting has to start over with a borrowed column. a small kingdom; a complete street; a tile of nine cells before the next mile of arithmetic.

a square of nine is restful: three by three, no remainder, symmetric in every axis. add the numbers in a row and you get fifteen; do it for any row, any column, any diagonal, and the same fifteen turns up. the building has rooms arranged this way without admitting to it.

to be on cloud nine; to dress to the nines; nine lives. the idiom keeps overstating itself. perhaps nine is the highest number you can mean intensely without resorting to infinity. see also eight · ten · the catalogue.