What does "quicksort" mean?

A sorting algorithm that operates by recursively partitioning the items to be sorted into two sets.

How do you pronounce "quicksort"?

Pronounced //ˈkwɪkˌsɔɹt//.

//ˈkwɪkˌsɔɹt// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A sorting algorithm that operates by recursively partitioning the items to be sorted into two sets.
"Somewhat surprisingly, the average behaviour of quicksort is the same as the best behaviour."

Verb

1
To sort with such an algorithm. transitive
"1991, Maguire et al, Geographical Information Systems: Principles and Applications The first and last subsets are then recursively quicksorted."

"Somewhat surprisingly, the average behaviour of quicksort is the same as the best behaviour."

From Quick + sort, from its computational efficiency.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.