Word.ws English Dictionary

shellsort

shellsort is the alternative form of Shellsort.

Noun capitalized: Shellsort

Shellsort (uncountable)

  1. A sorting algorithm that starts by sorting pairs of elements that are far apart from each other, then progressively reduces the gap between elements to be compared.

Forms of shellsort

pluralshellsorts
alternative formshellsort

Origin of shellsort

From Shell + sort, after Douglas Shell, who published the first version in 1959.

Questions about shellsort

What does shellsort mean?
Shellsort means a sorting algorithm that starts by sorting pairs of elements that are far apart from each other, then progressively reduces the gap between elements to be compared.
What is shellsort the alternative form of?
Shellsort is the alternative form of Shellsort.
What part of speech is shellsort?
Shellsort is a noun.
What is the plural of shellsort?
The plural of shellsort is shellsorts.

Words near shellsort in the dictionary

  1. shellscripts
  2. Shellses
  3. shellsful
  4. shellshock
  5. shellshocked
  6. shellsort
  7. shellsorts
  8. shellsuit
  9. shellsuited
  10. shellsuits
  11. shelltoe

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shellsort (page history and authors); Shellsort (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Shellsort.wav.

Cite this entry: “shellsort.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shellsort. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.