sort

American  

[sawrt] / sɔrt /

noun

• sorts
  plural

1. 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.

   Synonyms:

   nature, character, rank, order, family, class

2. character, quality, or nature.

   young people of a nice sort.

3. an example of something that is undistinguished or barely adequate.

   He is a sort of poet.

4. manner, fashion, or way.

   We spoke in this sort for several minutes.

5. Printing.

   1. any of the individual characters making up a font of type.

   2. characters of a particular font that are rarely used.

6. an instance of sorting.

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verb (used with object)

• sorts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• sorted,
  past participle,  past
• sorting
  present participle

1. to arrange according to sort, kind, or class; separate into sorts; classify.

   to sort socks;

   to sort eggs by grade.

2. to separate or take from other sorts or from others (often followed byout ): to sort out the children's socks.

   to sort the good from the bad;

   to sort out the children's socks.

3. to assign to a particular class, group, or place (often followed by with, together, etc.).

   to sort people together indiscriminately.

4. Scot. to provide with food and shelter.

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

verb (used without object)

• sorts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• sorted,
  past participle,  past
• sorting
  present participle

1. Archaic. to suit; agree; fit.

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

verb phrase

1. sort out

   1. to evolve; develop; turn out.

      We'll just have to wait and see how things sort out.

   2. to put in order; clarify.

      After I sort things out here, I'll be able to concentrate on your problem.

idioms

1. out of sorts,

   1. in low spirits; depressed.

   2. in poor health; indisposed; ill.

   3. in a bad temper; irritable.

      to be out of sorts because of the weather.

   4. Printing. short of certain characters of a font of type.

2. of sorts, Also of a sort

   1. of a mediocre or poor kind.

      a tennis player of sorts.

   2. of one sort or another; of an indefinite kind.

3. sort of, in a way; somewhat; rather.

   Their conversation was sort of tiresome.

sort British  

/ sɔːt /

noun

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

2. informal type of character, nature, etc

   he's a good sort

3. a more or less definable or adequate example

   it's a sort of review

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

5. archaic manner; way

   in this sort we struggled home

6. to some extent

7. 1. of an inferior kind

   2. of an indefinite kind

8. not in normal good health, temper, etc

9. informal

   1. (adverb) in some way or other; as it were; rather

   2. (sentence substitute) used to express reservation or qualified assent

      I’m only joking. Sort of

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verb

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

2. (tr) to put (something) into working order

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

4. informal to supply, esp with drugs

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

6. archaic (intr) to agree; accord

sort More Idioms  

1. 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.

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Usage

See kind ².

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• sorter
  noun
• subsort
  noun
• subsorter
  noun
• missort
  verb
• subsort
  verb
• undersort
  verb (used with object)
• unsort
  verb (used with object)
• sortable
  adjective
• unsortable
  adjective
• sortably
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• sorts
  plural

Participles

• sorting
  present
• sorted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• sort
  simple
• sorts
  simple
• have sorted
  perfect
• has sorted
  perfect
• am sorting
  progressive
• are sorting
  progressive
• is sorting
  progressive
• have been sorting
  perfect progressive
• has been sorting
  perfect progressive

Past

• sorted
  simple
• had sorted
  perfect
• was sorting
  progressive
• were sorting
  progressive
• had been sorting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will sort
  simple
• will have sorted
  perfect
• will be sorting
  progressive
• will have been sorting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

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

Explanation

A sort is a type or a kind of something, or the act of categorizing things. If you’re an organized sort of person, sort your clothes by color. If you’re the disorganized sort, just chuck them all over the floor. The noun sort can mean a category or example, or even a type of person, as in "My sister is a generous sort." As a verb, it means "organize, categorize, or resolve" like when you sort your earrings by size or your math teacher helps you sort out what went wrong on the latest test. Sort comes from the Latin sortem, "share or portion" and also "fate or destiny."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sort sorts sorted sorting

The realizations this sort of musing can lead us to are not always pleasurable.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

Workers regularly collect the trapped mosquitoes and, after sticking them in a fridge for a while to knock them out, sort them by species and count them.

From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026

As we found in our recent research, our brains also have powerful mechanisms for defending body weight – and can sort of “remember” what that weight used to be.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026

"Through the whole thing, I was only ever thinking about the day, the hour, the sort of minute that I was in", the runner told BBC Breakfast.

From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026

And while Gingersnipes was not the superstitious type, she could not help but think that this new life was some sort of sign from Clare.

From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman

Ultimately, “Revolver” exists as a weigh-station, of sorts.

From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026

“You’ve got all of this uncertainty around Iran, this uncertainty around Fed guidance to some extent. There’s all sorts of other noise in markets,” Goldberg said.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 3, 2026

But companies pay for all sorts of services aimed at getting them fast information.

From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2026

On the pitch at Seattle’s Lumen Field, they looked out of sorts in a way they hadn’t all tournament.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

Stock prices could do all sorts of crazy things: He didn’t want to short them until the loans started going bad.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

Jacie Prieto Lopez, vice president of communications for LA28, the Olympics organizing group, confirmed that improvements would be made to the facility but said specifics were still being sorted out.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026

The newly-appointed secretary of state, Sir Chris Bryant, has said he is coming to Northern Ireland with "a checklist of things I want to get sorted" rather than a chequebook.

From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026

The report sorted American households into seven distinct family structures: intact married, single parent, blended, unmarried biological or adoptive, cohabiting, extended and other.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

The food "lasts me quite a long time, since there aren't many of us," she told AFP as she sorted through the donations.

From Barron's ● Jul. 18, 2026

I look around the table and realize we’ve cut and sorted everything.

From "Clairboyance" by Kristiana Kahakauwila

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

Even the shape of the BuzzBallz make it harder to be recycled because they can roll on the conveyor belts at the sorting facilities, said Herriott.

From BBC ● 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

The team also found that the more the car sorting task was "offloaded" from the prefrontal cortex, the better participants performed a second task at the same time.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026

The temporary lodger, in his turn, stood and bowed to them, then returned to his pack of wooden oddments, sorting, arranging and polishing.

From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman

Related Words

• array
• character
• description
• kind
• lot
• nature
• number
• quality
• set
• style