sort

/sɔːt//soɹt/

sort noun: a general type.

Noun

sort (plural sorts)

A general type.
- 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...1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
- “[…] 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.[…]”1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC
(archaic) Manner, way; form of being or acting.
- Soon as the term of those six years shall cease,
  Ye then shall hither back return again,
  The marriage to accomplish vow’d betwixt you twain.
  Which for my part, I covet to perform,
  In sort as through the world I did proclaim,
  That whoso kill’d that monster (most deform)
  And him in hardy battle...1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- Such is that argument whereby they that wore on their heads garlands are charged as transgressors of nature’s law, and guilty of sacrilege against God the Lord of nature, inasmuch as flowers, in such sort worn can neither be smelt nor seen well by those that wear them; and God made flowers sweet...1845, Richard Hooker, Works of that Learned and Judicious Divine […]
(obsolete) Condition above the vulgar; rank.
- “What think you, Captain Fluellen? is it fit this soldier keep his oath?”
  “He is a craven and a villain else, an’t please your majesty, in my conscience.”
  “It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort, quite from the answer of his degree.”
  “Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as...c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V
(informal) A person evaluated in a certain way.
- good sort, bad sort
- There is no problem with this and he seems to be a decent sort with very good reflexes. I will have Felix replaced with him when we get back to Washington because he is more acceptable.1999 October, Heinrich Müller, Müller Journals: 1948-1950, The Washington years
(obsolete) Group, company.
- a sort of shepherds suing of the Chace1595, Edmund Spenser, The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser
- a sort of doves were housed too near their hall1687, John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther
(Australia, UK, informal) A good-looking woman.
An act of sorting.
- I had a sort of my cupboard.
Synonyms:

sort-out
An algorithm for sorting a list of items into a particular sequence.
- Popular algorithms for sorts include quicksort and heapsort.
- The fastest general algorithm we have considered that sorts keys in a stable manner is the list merge sort, but it does not use minimum storage2014, Donald E. Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming. Sorting and Searching, →ISBN
Synonyms:

sort algorithm, sorting algorithm
A piece of metal type used to print one letter, character, or symbol in a particular size and style.
- Green managed to recover a total of 151 sorts (the name for individual pieces of type) out of a possible 500,000.2024 May 5, Holly Black, “Remnants of a Legendary Typeface Have Been Rescued From the River Thames”, in artnet
A type.

Synonyms:

genre, genus, kind, type, variety
(obsolete) Fate, fortune, destiny.
- For he is groſſe and like the maſſie earth,
  That mooues not vpwards, nor by princely deeds
  Doth meane to ſoare aboue the highest ſort.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
(obsolete) Anything used to determine the answer to a question by chance; lot.
- No, make a lottery;
  And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw
  The sort to fight with Hector.c. 1602, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida
(obsolete) A full set of anything, such as a pair of shoes or a suit of clothes.

Verb

sort (third-person singular simple present sorts, present participle sorting, simple past and past participle sorted)

(transitive) To separate items into different categories according to certain criteria that determine their sorts.
- Sort the letters in those bags into a separate pile for each language.
- And seeing the Rays which differ in Refrangibility may be parted and sorted from one another, and that either by Refraction..., or by Reflexion..., and then the several sorts apart at equal Incidences suffer unequal Refractions,...; it's manifest that the Sun's Light is an heterogeneous Mixture of...1704, Isaac Newton, Opticks
Synonyms:

categorize, class, classify, group
(transitive) To arrange into some sequence, usually numerically, alphabetically or chronologically.
- Sort those bells into a row in ascending sequence of pitch.
Synonyms:

order, rank
(transitive) To conjoin; to put together in distribution; to class.
- Shellfish have been, by some of the ancients, compared and sorted with insecta.1635, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, Or, A Naturall Historie in Ten Centuries
- For when she sorts things present with things past
  And thereby things to come doth oft foresee;
  When she doth doubt at first, and chuse at last,
  These acts her owne, without her body bee.1599, John Davies, Nosce Teipsum
(obsolete, transitive) To conform; to adapt; to accommodate.
- I pray thee, sort thy heart to patience.ca 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI part 2
(obsolete, transitive) To choose from a number; to select; to cull.
- To send his mother to her father's house, that he may sort her out a worthy spouse1616, George Chapman, The Odysseys of Homer
- I'll sort some other time to visit you.ca 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI part 1
(intransitive) To join or associate with others, especially with others of the same kind or species; to agree.
- The illiberality of Parents in allowance towards their children is an harmefull error: makes them base; acquaints them with shifts, makes them sort with meane companie; and makes them surfet more, when they come to plenty.1625, Francis Bacon, Of Parents and Children
- Nor do Metalls only sort and herd with Metalls in the Earth : and Minerals with Minerals : but both indifferently and in common together: Iron with Vitriol, with Alum, with Sulphur: Copper with Sulphur, with Vitriol, &c. yea Iron, Copper, Lead, Nitre, Sulphur, Vitriol, and perhaps some more in one...1695, John Woodward, An essay toward a natural history of the earth
(intransitive) To suit; to fit; to be in accord; to harmonize.
- They are happie men, whose natures sort with their vocations, otherwise they may say Multum incola fuit anima mea; when they converse in those things they doe not affect.1612, Francis Bacon, Of Nature in Men
- I cannot tell ye precisely how they sorted; but they agreed sae right that Donald was invited to dance at the wedding in his Highland trews, and they said that there was never sae meikle siller clinked in his purse either before or since.1814, Walter Scott, Waverley
(UK, colloquial, transitive) To fix (a problem) or handle (a task).
- ‘Does rewilding sort climate change? Yes!’: UK expert says nature can save planet and not harm farming [title]2024 February 25, Donna Ferguson, “‘Does rewilding sort climate change? Yes!’: UK expert says nature can save planet and not harm farming”, in The Observer
Synonyms:

sort out
(UK, colloquial, transitive) To attack physically.
- If he comes nosing around here again I'll sort him!
Synonyms:

sort out
(transitive) To geld.

sort meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

sort in Hindi

type: तरह tarah, किस्म kisma, क़िस्म qisma

sort in Tamil

வகைப்படுத்து, ஒழுங்குபடுத்து, வரிசைப்படுத்து

sort in Marathi

sort, kind, type, species: प्रकार prakār

sort in Urdu

type: قِسْم qism, طَرْح tarh, طَرَح tarah, نَوع nau'

More languagesFewer languages

sort in Bengali: প্রকার prokar
sort in Telugu: అమరిక amarika, పేర్చు pērcu, అమర్చు amarcu, రకము rakamu
sort in Malayalam: തരം taraṁ, അടുക്ക് aṭukkŭ, അടുക്കുക aṭukkuka
sort in Kannada: ಬಗೆ, ತೆರ, ತರಹ, ತರ
sort in Punjabi: ਕ੍ਰਮਬੱਧ ਕਰੋ, ਲਡ਼ੀਬੱਧ ਕਰੋ, ਤਰਤੀਬਬੱਧ ਕਰੋ
sort in Gujarati: સૉર્ટ કરો, ક્રમબદ્ધ કરો, સૉર્ટ કરવા માટે
sort in Odia: ଭଳି bhaḷi
sort in Nepali: क्रमबद्ध गर्नुहोस्, क्रमबध्द गर्नुहोस्, क्रमबद्ध गर्न
sort in Tagalog: uri, klase
sort in Arabic: نَوْع nawʕ, فَرَزَ faraza
sort in Malay: jenis
sort in Persian: مرتبسازی, رتبش, گروهیستن, رتبیدن
sort in Thai: ชนิด chá-nít, ประเภท bprà-pêet
sort in Vietnamese: hạng, loại
sort in Myanmar: မျိုး myui:

Examples of sort in a sentence

Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
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.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths.2013 June 14, Sam Leith, “Where the profound meets the profane”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 37:
With the might of that throw Goldry’s wrath departed from him and left him strengthless, in such sort that he reeled as he went from the wrastling ground.1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 27:

All 40 example sentences with sort

Synonyms of sort

sort-out
sort algorithm
sorting algorithm
genre
genus
kind
type
variety
categorize
class

8 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of sort

Forms of sort

Noun
plural	sorts
Verb
third-person singular present	sorts
present participle	sorting
past participle	sorted
past	sorted
second-person singular present (archaic)	sortest
second-person singular past (archaic)	sortedst
third-person singular present (archaic)	sorteth

Past tense of sort: sorted

Plural of sort: sorts

Origin of sort

From Middle English sort, soort, sorte (cognate Dutch soort, German Sorte, Danish sort, Swedish sort), borrowed from Old French sorte (“class, kind”), from Latin sortem, accusative form of sors (“lot, fate, share, rank, category”).

From Middle English sorten, from Old French sortir (“to allot, sort”), from Latin sortīre (“draw lots, divide, choose”), from sors.

Words formed from sort

Phrases with sort

1 more phrasesFewer phrases

introspective sort

Words that rhyme with sort

44 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sort

What does sort mean?: Sort means a general type.
What is sort in Hindi?: Sort in Hindi is तरह (tarah), किस्म (kisma), क़िस्म (qisma). See Sort meaning in Hindi.
How do you use sort in a sentence?: Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for.
What part of speech is sort?: Sort can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce sort?: Sort is pronounced /soɹt/ (US).
What is the plural of sort?: The plural of sort is sorts.

Words near sort in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: sort (page history and authors); sort (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); प्रकार (Marathi) (page history and authors); അടുക്കുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); sort (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sort (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sort (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଭଳି (Odia) (page history and authors); sort (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-sort.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-sort.wav, en-au-sort.ogg.

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