sort

[sawrt]

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR sort 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,

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.

Idioms

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

1200–50; (noun) Middle English < Middle French sorte < Medieval Latin sort- (stem of sors) kind, allotted status or portion, lot, Latin: orig., voter's lot; (v.) Middle English sorten to allot, arrange, assort (< Middle French sortir) < Latin sortīrī to draw lots, derivative of sors; later senses influenced by the noun and by assort

Related formssort·a·ble, adjectivesort·a·bly, adverbsort·er, nounmis·sort, verbsub·sort, nounsub·sort, verbsub·sort·er, nounun·der·sort, verb (used with object)un·sort, verb (used with object)un·sort·a·ble, adjective

Can be confusedkind² sort type (see usage note at kind²) (see usage note at type)

Synonyms for sort

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR sort ON THESAURUS.COM

1. class, family, order, rank, character, nature.

Usage note

See kind².

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for sort

kind, set, description, nature, character, style, number, lot, array, quality, cull, separate, catalogue, sift, categorize, comb, arrange, family, battery, batch

Examples from the Web for sort

Contemporary Examples of sort

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
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
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
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
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

Historical Examples of sort

But he had not done so, and she was glad he could be restrained and deliberate in that "breedy" sort of way.
The Spenders
Harry Leon Wilson
It had grown much too cold to do without some sort of artificial covering.
Ancient Man
Hendrik Willem van Loon
She came down to breakfast singing the words in a sort of ecstasy.
Harriet, The Moses of Her People
Sarah H. Bradford
Except for a very few words we do not know what sort of tongue it was.
Ancient Man
Hendrik Willem van Loon
There is no passion in your veins; it is only a sort of sympathetic selfishness.
Malbone
Thomas Wentworth Higginson

British Dictionary definitions for sort

sort

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 Formssortable, adjectivesortably, adverbsorter, noun

Word Origin for sort

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

xref

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

Word Origin and History for sort

late 14c., from Old French sorte "class, kind," from Latin sortem (nominative sors) "lot; fate, destiny; share, portion; rank, category; sex, class, oracular response, prophecy," from PIE root *ser- (3) "to line up" (cf. Latin serere "to arrange, attach, join;" see series). The sense evolution in Vulgar Latin is from "what is allotted to one by fate," to "fortune, condition," to "rank, class, order." Out of sorts "not in usual good condition" is attested from 1620s, with literal sense of "out of stock."

mid-14c., "to arrange according to type or quality," from Old French sortir "allot, sort, assort," from Latin sortiri "draw lots, divide, choose," from sors (see sort (n.)). In some senses, the verb is a shortened form of assort.

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.