• Sort

    Pronunciation

    • UK IPA: /sɔːt/
    • US IPA: /sɔɹt/
    • Homophones: sought in non-rhotic accents

    Origin 1

    From Old French sorte ("class, kind"), from Latin root of sors ("lot, fate, share, rank, category")

    Full definition of sort

    Noun

    sort

    (plural sorts)
    1. A general type.
      • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 1, I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.
      • 1922, Ben Travers, A Cuckoo in the Nest Chapter 1, “… the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
          Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer,
        With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer.         …”
      • 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 17, The face which emerged was not reassuring. â€¦. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls.
      • 2013-06-14, Sam Leith, Where the profound meets the profane, Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths.
    2. Manner; form of being or acting.
      • SpenserWhich for my part I covet to perform,
        In sort as through the world I did proclaim.
      • HookerFlowers, in such sort worn, can neither be smelt nor seen well by those that wear them.
      • ShakespeareI'll deceive you in another sort.
      • MiltonTo Adam in what sort
        Shall I appear?
      • DrydenI shall not be wholly without praise, if in some sort I have copied his style.
    3. (obsolete) Condition above the vulgar; rank.
    4. (dated) Group, company.
      • Spensera sort of shepherds
      • Drydena sort of doves
      • Massingera sort of rogues
      • ChapmanA boy, a child, and we a sort of us,
        Vowed against his voyage.
    5. (informal) A person.
      This guy's a decent sort.
    6. An act of sorting.
      I had a sort of my cupboard.
    7. (computing) An algorithm for sorting a list of items into a particular sequence.Popular sorts include quicksort and heapsort.
    8. (typography) A piece of metal type used to print one letter, character, or symbol in a particular size and style.
    9. (obsolete) Chance; lot; destiny.
    10. (obsolete) A pair; a set; a suit.

    Synonyms

    Derived terms

    non-computer-specific terms derived from "sort"
    Algorithm/">
    Algorithm for sorting a list of items

    Origin 2

    From Old French sortir ("allot, sort"), from Latin sortire ("draw lots, divide, choose"), from sors

    Verb

    1. (separate according to certain criteria)(transitive) To separate according to certain criteria.
      • Isaac NewtonRays which differ in refrangibility may be parted and sorted from one another.
    2. (arrange into some sort of order)(transitive) To arrange into some order, especially numerically, alphabetically or chronologically.
    3. (fix a problem)(British) To fix a problem, to handle a task; to sort out.
    4. (transitive) To conjoin; to put together in distribution; to class.
      • Francis BaconShellfish have been, by some of the ancients, compared and sorted with insects.
      • Sir J. DaviesShe sorts things present with things past.
    5. (intransitive) To join or associate with others, especially with others of the same kind or species; to agree.
      • WoodwardNor do metals only sort and herd with metals in the earth, and minerals with minerals.
      • Francis BaconThe illiberality of parents towards children makes them base, and sort with any company.
    6. (intransitive) To suit; to fit; to be in accord; to harmonize.
      • Francis BaconThey are happy whose natures sort with their vocations.
      • Sir Walter ScottI cannot tell ye precisely how they sorted.
    7. (transitive, obsolete) To conform; to adapt; to accommodate.
      • ShakespeareI pray thee, sort thy heart to patience.
    8. (transitive, obsolete) To choose from a number; to select; to cull.
      • Chapmanthat he may sort out a worthy spouse
      • ShakespeareI'll sort some other time to visit you.

    Usage notes

    In British sense “to fix a problem”, often used in the form “I’ll get you sorted,” or “Now that’s sorted,” – in American usage sort out is used instead.

    Synonyms

    Derived terms

    Anagrams

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