9/11

alternative 911 · alternative 9-11 · alternative nine-eleven

1. September 11, 2001; The date of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the United States.

   Synonyms: September eleventh

2. metonymicallyThe attacks themselves.

   Republican front-runner twisted his arms in apparent imitation of Serge Kovaleski’s arthrogryposis as he reiterated controversial 9/11 claims

   2015 November 26, Claire Phipps, “New York Times slams 'outrageous' Donald Trump for mocking reporter's disability”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Mar 2025

   3 more examples

   Hey, for the ninth consecutive year, Nick, JetBlue Airlines ranked first for satisfaction among all North American airlines. But, you know what ranked least in satisfaction? 9/11 Airlines. What a terrible name for an airline; it reminds me of that tragedy.

   2013 May 21, Norm Macdonald Live, season 3, episode 11 (comedy), spoken by Norm Macdonald

   What is unbearable, in fact, is the feeling, 13 years after 9/11, that America has been chasing its tail; that, in some whack-a-mole horror show, the quashing of a jihadi enclave here only spurs the sprouting of another there; that the ideology of Al Qaeda is still reverberating through a blocked Arab world whose Sunni-Shia balance (insofar as that went) was upended by the American invasion of Iraq.

   2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The horror! The horror! The trauma of ISIS”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 Jun 2021

   As someone who studies the impact of misinformation on society, I often wish the young entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley who enabled communication at speed had been forced to run a 9/11 scenario with their technologies before they deployed them commercially.

   2019 September 1, Claire Wardle, “Misinformation Has Created a New World Disorder”, in Scientific American, archived from the original on 01 Apr 2025

   Synonyms: September eleventh

plural 9/11s · alternative 911 · alternative 9-11 · alternative nine-eleven

1. An event comparable to the September 11 attacks.

   Jordanians referred to this horrific event as "their 9-11".

   2007, David E. Long, Bernard Reich, Mark Gasiorowski, The Government and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa

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   Eleven million Spaniards responded to "their 9/11" by demonstrating in the rain against terrorism and their government's policies.

   2005, Peter H. Merkl, The Rift Between America And Old Europe: The Distracted Eagle, Routledge, page 73

   "I thought about ... the consequences for me saying I was a part of 9/11. I decided to just put my trust in God and tell the truth and time will tell," he said.

   2006 April 14, “Moussaoui says he wants more 9/11s”, in The Age, archived from the original on 24 Jan 2022

   But experts who have studied these other "9/11s" say some offer important revelations, by comparison, about how America responded to its own.

   2006, Michael Weissenstein, “Nations respond to their '9/11s'”, in International Institute for Strategic Studies, archived from the original on 08 Apr 2008

   Drawing a US analogy, he said the weekend’s attack, for Israel, “could be a 9/11 and a Pearl Harbor wrapped into one”.

   2023 October 9, Ben Doherty, “Israel military says situation ‘dire’ in south as 260 bodies retrieved from festival”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Nov 2023

2. InternetexcessivehumorousA negative event that a person or a group of people have experienced whose impact is, hyperbolically, comparable to that of the September 11 attacks.

   This was my 9/11.

   1 more example

   9/11 for unfunny people