Refine this word faster
Sort
Definitions
- 1 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 clear space like a lawn."
- 2 an approximate definition or example wordnet
- 3 Manner, way; form of being or acting. archaic
"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 overcame, Should have mine only daughter to his Dame […]"
- 4 a category of things distinguished by some common characteristic or quality wordnet
- 5 Condition above the vulgar; rank. obsolete
"“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 Lucifer and Belzebub himself, it is necessary, look your grace, that he keep his vow and his oath.”"
Show 12 more definitions
- 6 a person of a particular character or nature wordnet
- 7 A person evaluated in a certain way. informal
"good sort, bad sort"
- 8 an operation that segregates items into groups according to a specified criterion wordnet
- 9 Group, company. obsolete
"a sort of shepherds suing of the Chace"
- 10 A good-looking woman. Australia, British, informal
- 11 An act of sorting.
"I had a sort of my cupboard."
- 12 An algorithm for sorting a list of items into a particular sequence.
"Popular algorithms for sorts include quicksort and heapsort."
- 13 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."
- 14 A type.
- 15 Fate, fortune, destiny. obsolete
"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."
- 16 Anything used to determine the answer to a question by chance; lot. obsolete
"No, make a lottery; And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw The sort to fight with Hector."
- 17 A full set of anything, such as a pair of shoes or a suit of clothes. obsolete
- 1 To separate items into different categories according to certain criteria that determine their sorts. transitive
"Sort the letters in those bags into a separate pile for each language."
- 2 arrange or order by classes or categories wordnet
- 3 To arrange into some sequence, usually numerically, alphabetically or chronologically. transitive
"Sort those bells into a row in ascending sequence of pitch."
- 4 examine in order to test suitability wordnet
- 5 To conjoin; to put together in distribution; to class. transitive
"Shellfish have been, by some of the ancients, compared and sorted with insecta."
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 To conform; to adapt; to accommodate. obsolete, transitive
"I pray thee, sort thy heart to patience."
- 7 To choose from a number; to select; to cull. obsolete, transitive
"To send his mother to her father's house, that he may sort her out a worthy spouse"
- 8 To join or associate with others, especially with others of the same kind or species; to agree. intransitive
"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."
- 9 To suit; to fit; to be in accord; to harmonize. intransitive
"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."
- 10 To fix (a problem) or handle (a task). British, colloquial, transitive
"‘Does rewilding sort climate change? Yes!’: UK expert says nature can save planet and not harm farming [title]"
- 11 To attack physically. British, colloquial, transitive
"If he comes nosing around here again I'll sort him!"
- 12 To geld. transitive
Etymology
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.
See also for "sort"
Next best steps
Mini challenge
Unscramble this word: sort