Definition of "nonet" [no•net]

• A combination of nine instruments or voices. (noun)
• A composition written for such a combination. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The nonet was nothing if not bold: What other band in a post-9/11 world would use its liner notes to diagram a connection between major record labels and the military industrial complex?"
• "As a member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and with his own bands especially Brass Fantasy, a brass-and-drums nonet, he embraced both avant-garde values and the techniques of jazz's earliest trumpeters, employing smears, blats, growls and half-valve winces in new ways."
• "The band has grown from a four-piece recording outfit to a nonet onstage, featuring a horn section trumpet, sax, trombone, bass, drums, percussion and keyboards."