- present participle of sort.
sorting
Americannoun
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sortings
plural
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The process by which sediment particles that have a certain characteristic, such as a given shape or grain size, are separated from other associated particles by an active agent of transportation, such as wind, a stream, or a glacier.
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A measure of the degree to which this process has occurred within a body of sediment. Wind-blown sediments are usually well-sorted because only a small range of grain sizes can be lifted by a particular wind velocity. Glacially derived sediments are usually poorly sorted because of the great range of particle sizes that are picked up by a moving glacier.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sorting
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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Hundreds of volunteers hurried through the packed parking lot next to Bogota's largest stadium, forming human chains to pass donated water bottles, food provisions, sanitary products and bedding to the sorting area.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
The latest Russian barrage destroyed storage and logistics facilities - from online retailer warehouses to a postal sorting centre.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
Two-tenths of a percent is a rounding error on a rounding error, and I wouldn’t bet against a stadium full of Iraqis and Norwegians sorting one another more finely to clear it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
My brother was saddened by her death, but he did not want to be involved in sorting through her affairs, so I managed it on my own.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026
Dropping my bag on the floor beside the desk, I slide into the roller chair and start the process of opening the mail and sorting it into piles.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
Some of the sortings are heartening: There are more self-made men than born-rich kids in the top 50, and the self-made billionaires’ total wealth is bigger.
From Slate ● Nov. 18, 2013
She could get a white muslin and a white cambric, which, with different sortings of ribbons, served her for all dress-occasions.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 82, August, 1864 by Various
From this year—1851—date the earliest letters preserved in the series of thirty-four boxes which contain the sortings of his vast correspondence.
From The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke, Volume 1 by Stephen Lucius Gwynn
These responded to every properly-modulated thought wave passing through them and made the same careful sortings as a human cell absorbing matter from the world.
From Cerebrum by Lloyd Birmingham
She could get a white muslin and a white cambric, which, with different sortings of ribbons, served her for all dress occasions.
From Household Papers and Stories by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
