sort
Americannoun
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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.
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character, quality, or nature.
young people of a nice sort.
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an example of something that is undistinguished or barely adequate.
He is a sort of poet.
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manner, fashion, or way.
We spoke in this sort for several minutes.
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Printing.
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any of the individual characters making up a font of type.
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characters of a particular font that are rarely used.
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an instance of sorting.
verb (used with object)
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to arrange according to sort, kind, or class; separate into sorts; classify.
to sort socks;
to sort eggs by grade.
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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.
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to assign to a particular class, group, or place (often followed by with, together, etc.).
to sort people together indiscriminately.
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Scot. to provide with food and shelter.
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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)
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Archaic. to suit; agree; fit.
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British Dialect. to associate, mingle, or be friendly.
verb phrase
idioms
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out of sorts,
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in low spirits; depressed.
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in poor health; indisposed; ill.
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in a bad temper; irritable.
to be out of sorts because of the weather.
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Printing. short of certain characters of a font of type.
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of sorts, Also of a sort
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of a mediocre or poor kind.
a tennis player of sorts.
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of one sort or another; of an indefinite kind.
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sort of, in a way; somewhat; rather.
Their conversation was sort of tiresome.
noun
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a class, group, kind, etc, as distinguished by some common quality or characteristic
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informal type of character, nature, etc
he's a good sort
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a more or less definable or adequate example
it's a sort of review
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(often plural) printing any of the individual characters making up a fount of type
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archaic manner; way
in this sort we struggled home
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to some extent
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of an inferior kind
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of an indefinite kind
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not in normal good health, temper, etc
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informal
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(adverb) in some way or other; as it were; rather
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(sentence substitute) used to express reservation or qualified assent
I’m only joking. Sort of
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verb
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(tr) to arrange according to class, type, etc
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(tr) to put (something) into working order
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(tr) to arrange (computer information) by machine in an order convenient to the computer user
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informal to supply, esp with drugs
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archaic (intr; foll by with, together, etc) to associate, as on friendly terms
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archaic (intr) to agree; accord
Usage
See kind 2.
Other Word Forms
- missort verb
- sortable adjective
- sortably adverb
- sorter noun
- subsort noun
- subsorter noun
- undersort verb (used with object)
- unsort verb (used with object)
- unsortable adjective
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
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.
The WSJ report noted that customers increasingly want less expensive and more efficient processors for these sorts of workloads.
From MarketWatch
Here’s the full list, sorted by ascending forward P/E:
From MarketWatch
“Distillation is sort of like fighting over who gets to fill the tank with whose gas — but the real battle is over who gets to be the engine,” Caen said.
From MarketWatch
It is still possible, of course, that Labour manages to sort itself out and improve its fortunes, though of course the events of the last 48 hours make that harder to see.
From BBC
Substantial layoffs seem certain, but cost cutting alone won’t make the operation into the sort of entertainment powerhouse that can better compete with the likes of Netflix and Disney.
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.
