sort

[ sawrt ]

/ sɔrt /

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See synonyms for: sort / sorted / sorting on Thesaurus.com

noun

a particular kind, species, variety, class, or group, distinguished by a common character or nature: to develop a new sort of painting;nice people, of course, but not really our sort.

character, quality, or nature: young people of a nice sort.

an example of something that is undistinguished or barely adequate: He is a sort of poet.

manner, fashion, or way: We spoke in this sort for several minutes.

Printing.

any of the individual characters making up a font of type.
characters of a particular font that are rarely used.

an instance of sorting.

verb (used with object)

to arrange according to sort, kind, or class; separate into sorts; classify: to sort socks; to sort eggs by grade.

to separate or take from other sorts or from others (often followed by out): to sort the good from the bad;to sort out the children's socks.

to assign to a particular class, group, or place (often followed by with, together, etc.): to sort people together indiscriminately.

Scot. to provide with food and shelter.

Computers. to place (records) in order, as numerical or alphabetical, based on the contents of one or more keys contained in each record.Compare key¹ (def. 19).

verb (used without object)

Archaic. to suit; agree; fit.

British Dialect. to associate, mingle, or be friendly.

Verb Phrases

sort out,

to evolve; develop; turn out: We'll just have to wait and see how things sort out.
to put in order; clarify: After I sort things out here, I'll be able to concentrate on your problem.

OTHER WORDS FOR sort

1 class, family, order, rank.

2 character, nature.

See synonyms for sort on Thesaurus.com

QUIZ

QUIZ YOURSELF ON "IS" VS. "ARE"

"Is" it time for a new quiz? "Are" you ready? Then prove your excellent skills on using "is" vs. "are."

Question 1 of 7

IS and ARE are both forms of which verb?

have

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Idioms about sort

of sorts,

of a mediocre or poor kind: a tennis player of sorts.
of one sort or another; of an indefinite kind.

Also of a sort .

out of sorts,

in low spirits; depressed.
in poor health; indisposed; ill.
in a bad temper; irritable: to be out of sorts because of the weather.
Printing. short of certain characters of a font of type.

sort of, Informal. in a way; somewhat; rather: Their conversation was sort of tiresome.

Origin of sort

First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English noun, from Middle French sorte, from Medieval Latin sort- (stem of sors ) “kind, allotted status or portion, lot,” Latin: originally, “lot (for voting)”; Middle English verb sorten “to allot, arrange, assort,” from Middle French sortir or directly from Latin sortīrī “to draw lots,” derivative of sors; later senses influenced by the noun and by assort

usage note for sort

See kind².

OTHER WORDS FROM sort

sort·a·ble, adjectivesort·a·bly, adverbsorter, nounmis·sort, verb

subsort, nounsub·sort, verbsub·sort·er, nounun·der·sort, verb (used with object)un·sort, verb (used with object)un·sort·a·ble, adjective

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH sort

kind, sort , type

Words nearby sort

Sorrentino, Sorrento, sorrow, sorrowful, sorry, sort, sorta, sortal, sortation, sort code, sorted

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use sort in a sentence

I also noticed that on the sort of holidays and things like that, food was always really central.
Tom Colicchio Hopes (and Fears) COVID-19 Will Change the Restaurant Industry|Pallabi Munsi|September 16, 2020|Ozy
To make the process faster, you should offer some sort of internal website search functionality.
How to drive digital innovation necessary during the pandemic|Nick Chasinov|September 16, 2020|Search Engine Watch
The flipside, of course, is that this is James Harden — the sort of offensive talent that any coach would want the chance to build a system around if given the opportunity.
Everything Should Be On The Table For The Houston Rockets. Even James Harden’s Future.|Chris Herring (chris.herring@fivethirtyeight.com)|September 14, 2020|FiveThirtyEight
To his surprise, he found quite a few reports describing this sort of immune cross-protection.
‘Trained Immunity’ Offers Hope in Fight Against Coronavirus|Esther Landhuis|September 14, 2020|Quanta Magazine

Stylistically, the Mystery Ship looks like a sort of dead end, but thematically, Craig Vetter knew exactly where motorcycles were headed.
22 of the weirdest concept motorcycles ever made|By John Burns/Cycle World|September 10, 2020|Popular-Science
Is it sort of evidence of the Gladwellian 10,000 hours theory?
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s Greatness|Marlow Stern|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
I had enough experiences around languages that it just sort of happened.
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s Greatness|Marlow Stern|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
When he was first incarcerated, he says some sort of paperwork snafu had him imprisoned under two different, but similar, names.
His First Day Out Of Jail After 40 Years: Adjusting To Life Outside|Justin Rohrlich|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
But I trusted Tony Robbins could sort me out on both fronts.
Can Self-Help Books Really Make a New You?|Lizzie Crocker|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Luckily, Tor was prepared for this sort of assault, and has built-in defenses to protect against it.
The Attack on the Hidden Internet|Marc Rogers|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
This treacherous sort of calm, we thought, might forbode a storm, and we did not allow it to lull us into security.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various
I want to see the sort of thing happening to schools that has already happened to many sorts of retail shops.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
It is no good settling down in a world that, on its part, refuses to do anything of the sort.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
Now in addition to that I had something else in my own college course—something of the same sort of thing but better.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
Presently he began to shiver so, with some sort of a chill, that I took off my coat and wrapped it round him.
The Boarded-Up House|Augusta Huiell Seaman

British Dictionary definitions for sort

sort

/ (sɔːt) /

noun

a class, group, kind, etc, as distinguished by some common quality or characteristic

informal type of character, nature, etche's a good sort

a more or less definable or adequate exampleit's a sort of review

(often plural) printing any of the individual characters making up a fount of type

archaic manner; wayin this sort we struggled home

after a sort to some extent

of sorts or of a sort

of an inferior kind
of an indefinite kind

out of sorts not in normal good health, temper, etc

sort of informal

(adverb) in some way or other; as it were; rather
(sentence substitute) used to express reservation or qualified assentI’m only joking. Sort of

verb

(tr) to arrange according to class, type, etc

(tr) to put (something) into working order

(tr) to arrange (computer information) by machine in an order convenient to the computer user

(tr foll by with) informal to supply, esp with drugs

(intr; foll by with, together, etc) archaic, or dialect to associate, as on friendly terms

(intr) archaic to agree; accord

Derived forms of sort

sortable, adjectivesortably, adverbsorter, noun

Word Origin for sort

C14: from Old French, from Medieval Latin sors kind, from Latin: fate

undefined sort

See kind 2

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 Idioms and Phrases with sort

sort

see after a fashion (sort); all kinds (sorts) of; bad sort; it takes all sorts; kind (sort) of; nothing of the kind (sort); of sorts; out of sorts.

sort

OTHER WORDS FOR sort

Idioms about sort

Origin of sort

usage note for sort

OTHER WORDS FROM sort

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH sort

Words nearby sort

Words related to sort

How to use sort in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for sort

Derived forms of sort

Word Origin for sort

undefined sort

Other Idioms and Phrases with sort