sortie

American  

[sawr-tee] / ˈsɔr ti /

noun

1. a rapid movement of troops from a besieged place to attack the besiegers.

2. a body of troops involved in such a movement.

3. the flying of an airplane on a combat mission.

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verb (used without object)

sortied, sortieing

1. to go on a sortie; sally forth.

sortie British  

/ ˈsɔːtɪ /

noun

1. 1. (of troops, etc) the act of emerging from a contained or besieged position

   2. the troops doing this

2. an operational flight made by one aircraft

3. a short or relatively short return trip

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verb

1. (intr) to make a sortie

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."

Example Sentences

“The near-zero sortie counts seen on some days since February should be viewed as an extreme manifestation of a longer-term trend, rather than a sudden development,” he said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026

Turk’s bad back makes it a brief sortie, but the attempt confirms that their friendship remains fundamentally intact.

From Salon • Feb. 26, 2026

River are all part of the perfect Sunday sortie for the ‘Animal Control’ star.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 7, 2025

“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

Two days earlier—on Friday, April 26—we’d humped all the way from Base Camp to Camp Two in one long day to begin our third and final acclimatization sortie in preparation for the summit push.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

Related Words

• raid