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assortment

American  
[uh-sawrt-muhnt] / əˈsɔrt mənt /

noun

  • assortments
    plural
  1. the act of assorting; distribution; classification.

  2. a collection of various kinds of things; a mixed collection.


assortment British  
/ əˈsɔːtmənt /

noun

  1. a collection or group of various things or sorts

  2. the act of assorting

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

Etymology

Origin of assortment

First recorded in 1605–15; assort + -ment

Explanation

An assortment is a collection of things that aren't the same. An assortment of chocolates might have some that are filled with coconut, caramel, or nuts. Yum. An assortment is a bunch of different things all together whether they’re the same sort or not. An assortment of nuts is a bunch of different nuts, such as cashews, peanuts, and almonds. If you have books, candy bars, action figures, photos, and paper clips on your desk, you have an assortment of things. A store that sells a wide variety of products offers an assortment. If you love choices, assortments are for you.

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Vocabulary lists containing assortment

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.

See Examples For:

Levi’s has also expanded its assortment of low-rise jeans, a style that caught on toward the end of the 90s.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

They have a great all-you-can-eat menu with really great meats and an assortment of sauces and condiments.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

Retailers are stocking a wide assortment of policies for the AI shopping agents suddenly headed for their online doors, the WSJ Leadership Institute’s Patrick Coffee reports.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

In the mayor’s race, Bass picked up donations from an assortment of city staffers, state lawmakers and members of Congress — Reps.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

Four famous Harvard professors entered, trailed by assistants and an assortment of newspaper folks.

From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock

Management is now focused on improving conversion, clothing assortments and productivity within the women’s category.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026

In grocery and convenience formats, AI helps determine optimal product mix by store, adjusting assortments based on local purchasing patterns rather than national averages.

From Barron's ● Feb. 1, 2026

But these shifts may still come at a cost to consumers and companies in the form of lower-quality products, more limited assortments or items that aren’t as attractive to shoppers wandering store aisles.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 8, 2026

Chaudhari offers two potential explanations for this surprising phenomenon: first, neural networks are never trained on random assortments of pixels.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 27, 2024

This was real luck, since over holidays Av’s mother, Naomi, the distinguished writer, and his Labor MP father, Dick, were known to fill their large house with odd assortments of lively minds.

From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson

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