ennead

Definition

The number nine.

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἐννεάς (enneás), ἐννεάδος (enneádos, “body of nine”) + -ad (suffix designating a unit); analysable as ennea- + -ad. The Greek words ἐννεάς and ἐννεάδος are derived from ἐννέᾰ (ennéă, “nine”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁néwn̥ (“nine”)) + -ᾰ́ς (-ắs, suffix forming abstract nouns of number from numerals) or -ος (-os).

Example Sentences

• "The ennead, according to the Pythagoreans, circulates all numbers within itself, and there can be no number beyond it. For the natural progression of numbers is as far as to 9, but after it their retrogression takes place. For 10 becomes as it were again the monad. […] Hence it is not possible there should be any elementary number beyond the ennead."
• "[T]he ennead is subtracted for this cause, because the three hundred and sixty parts of the entire [circle] consist of enneads, and for this reason the four regions of the world are circumscribed by ninety perfect parts."
• "We may assert with confidence that no cycle of this kind, and of equal antiquity or even of inferior antiquity, is the actual existence better attested or more thoroughly authenticated than that of this octaëteris of Philammon of Delphi, or, as we may truly call it, this original Pythian ennead of primitive Hellas."