Word.ws English Dictionary

sortkey

sortkey noun: a key (field or value) by which data items are sorted.

Noun

sortkey (plural sortkeys)

  1. A key (field or value) by which data items are sorted.
    • Output conversion routines may be applied to sortkey items before they are sorted.1973, Generalized Data Base Management Systems, page 257
    • Sortkeys are made by picking out delimiting characters and special signs.1975, Network, Library and Information Science Division of the World Information Systems Exchange, page 15

Forms of sortkey

pluralsortkeys
alternative formsort key

Origin of sortkey

From sort + key.

Questions about sortkey

What does sortkey mean?
Sortkey means a key (field or value) by which data items are sorted.
What part of speech is sortkey?
Sortkey is a noun.
What is the plural of sortkey?
The plural of sortkey is sortkeys.

Words near sortkey in the dictionary

  1. sortita
  2. sortition
  3. sortitioned
  4. sortitions
  5. sortitive
  6. sortkey
  7. sortkeys
  8. sortment
  9. sortments
  10. Sorto
  11. Sortor

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sortkey (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.

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