sortie
Americannoun
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a rapid movement of troops from a besieged place to attack the besiegers.
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a body of troops involved in such a movement.
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the flying of an airplane on a combat mission.
verb (used without object)
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sorties,
present (3rd person singular)
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sortied,
past participle, past
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sortieing
present participle
noun
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-
(of troops, etc) the act of emerging from a contained or besieged position
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the troops doing this
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an operational flight made by one aircraft
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a short or relatively short return trip
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sortiesimple
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sortiessimple
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have sortiedperfect
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has sortiedperfect
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am sortieingprogressive
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are sortieingprogressive
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is sortieingprogressive
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have been sortieingperfect progressive
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has been sortieingperfect progressive
Past
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sortiedsimple
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had sortiedperfect
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was sortieingprogressive
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were sortieingprogressive
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had been sortieingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sortie
1680–90; < French, noun use of feminine past participle of sortir to go out
Explanation
When a group of soldiers is sent on a specific mission, it's called a sortie. A fighter pilot's sortie might involve a mission to drop a bomb on a target and return to base. When a fighting unit is deployed, heading out on a military mission, you can describe it as a sortie. A sortie might involve troops moving across a field toward their enemy, or a tank advancing on a city held by rebels. Sometimes a sortie involves a sudden surge or attack. In French, the word sortie literally means "a going out," from a Latin root, surgere, or "rise up."
Vocabulary lists containing sortie
National Spelling Bee '14: Prelims Round 2
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This Week in Words: May 11–17, 2019
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Tolkien Reading Day, List 6
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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:
Turk’s bad back makes it a brief sortie, but the attempt confirms that their friendship remains fundamentally intact.
From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2026
Air-superiority missions, for instance, would require them to sortie and remain “on station” in Taiwan’s vicinity for a time before returning, which isn’t viable from Guam, Heginbotham said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 29, 2025
But this time the Russian plane wasn’t on a bombing sortie.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2024
“While a nighttime sortie is more challenging to pilots, it also applies significantly more pressure to adversaries, because the latter would have to remain on high alert passively all the time,” Global Times stated.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 19, 2023
All Lancelot’s muscles made an empathic sortie towards the feeling of his own armour, which he had not seen since he left Camelot.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Helicopters piloted by emergency responders flew sorties to deliver water in a bid to douse the fires.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
Indian air force helicopters flew several sorties rescuing hundreds of people, including foreign nationals.
From BBC ● Apr. 11, 2026
The F-15E jet fighter and A-10 attack plane were the first U.S. or Israeli aircraft to be shot down in thousands of sorties flown in Iranian airspace.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026
US and Israeli aircraft use a considerable amount of fuel reaching the Gulf and flying sorties over Iran, said Benjamin Neimark at the Queen Mary University of London.
From Barron's ● Mar. 15, 2026
Above all, his sorties reinforced his belief that the Wooded Island, despite the Japanese temple, should be made as wild as possible.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
The ROK Air Force then sortied its fighters, including about 80 fifth-generation F-35As.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 4, 2022
With an eye on relaxation as well as royalties, some well-established novelists and poets have sortied from their usual literary habitat and invaded the children's book field with happy results.
From Time Magazine Archive
She donned trousers, overcoat, slouch felt hat, a false-diamond stickpin and a false black mustache, and sortied into Mexican society.
From Time Magazine Archive
We had a fraternity office on campus from which we occasionally sortied out to class or, just as often, to the student lounge, where we tried to master the mambo.
From Time Magazine Archive
When they came opposite the rock which had sheltered Johnny they sortied to see if that part of the mesa was guarded, but there was no sign of life upon it.
From Hopalong Cassidy by Clarence E. Mulford
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.
