九 jiǔ nine; 9
Made up of [丿 piě 'slash' radical 4, 乚 yǐ hidden; concealed; small radical 5]Made with 2 strokes.
May be related to idea of approaching ten as it does contain a cross element
Ancient small seal form 
Related characters
Also uses 丿 piě component: 必 bì (certainly) 弟 dì (younger brother) 乎 hū (at) 久 jiǔ (long time) 乐 lè (music) 么 me (what) 乃 nǎi (to be) 年 nián (year) 少 shǎo (less) 生 shēng (produce) 失 shī (to lose) 勿 wù (do not) 戊 wù (fifth (ordinal)) 午 wǔ (noon) 义 yì (justice) 之 zhī (him) 族 zú (clan)
Also uses 乚 yǐ component: 吃 chī (to eat) 曷 hé (why) 孔 kǒng (great) 礼 lǐ (ceremony) 令 lìng (to order) 乱 luàn (in confusion or disorder) 卖 mài (sell) 买 mǎi (buy) 习 xí (to practice) 也 yě (also) 亿 yì (100,000,000) 艺 yì (skill) 忆 yì (to recollect) 以 yǐ (to use)
Sounds same
酒 jiǔ (wine) 久 jiǔ (long time)Different tone
咎 jiù (fault) 就 jiù (at once) 旧 jiù (old)Pronunciation
Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License
Stroke order for character 九, kindly provided under Wikimedia creative commons license ➚
Cities
九江 Jiujiang, JiangxiProverbs
九牛二虎之力 jiǔ niú èr hǔ zhī lì Tremendously strong九牛一毛 jiǔ niú yī maó An insignificant amount. A trivial matter
一龙生九种,种种不同 yī lóng shēng jiǔ zhǒng, zhǒng zhǒng bù tóng Brothers and sisters may not resemble each other