Nineties

adj, name, noun

adj, name, noun ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    plural of ninety form-of, plural, plural-only
  2. 2
    The decade of the 1890s, 1990s, etc.

    "Our readers — and contributors — are apt to elect a good deal according to years. The seventies and eighties, we may suppose, are concerned for the large educational and cultural interests of their Alma Mater; the nineties are deep in the practical and business activities; the noughties are not naughty, but still young enough to sport a fantastic costume at reunion and let the college wag as it will; the oneties are the really wise as to what the college ought to be, especially on its athletic side, but as contributors modest."

  3. 3
    the time of life between 90 and 100 wordnet
  4. 4
    The decade of one's life from age 90 through age 99. plural, plural-only
  5. 5
    the decade from 1990 to 1999 wordnet
Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    The range between 90 and 99. plural, plural-only

    "My ideal bracket of temperature ranges from the sixties up to the nineties."

  2. 7
    the decade from 1890 to 1899 wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    From or evoking the 91st through 100th years of a century (chiefly the 1990s). not-comparable

    "I found myself attracted to his mullet even though it struck me as needlessly nineties."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    Alternative letter-case form of nineties, in the context of a specific decade (almost always) the 1890s or 1990s. alt-of

    "Seventies UFO fans also referred to “close encounters,” including the consciousness-raising “close encounter of the third kind,” in which humans and aliens meet. But UFOlogy has gone through a radical change, and in the Nineties the terms of the past are largely obsolete. During the past decade, for instance, literally thousands of people have come forward to say they’ve been kidnapped, or “abducted,” by short, large-headed, thin-lipped entities with saucer eyes."

Example

More examples

"Technology will make a lot of progress in the nineties."

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.