a particular kind, species, variety, class, or group, distinguished by a common character or nature: to develop a new sort of painting;nice people, of course, but not really our sort.
character, quality, or nature: young people of a nice sort.
an example of something that is undistinguished or barely adequate: He is a sort of poet.
manner, fashion, or way: We spoke in this sort for several minutes.
Printing.
any of the individual characters making up a font of type.
characters of a particular font that are rarely used.
an instance of sorting.
verb (used with object)
to arrange according to sort, kind, or class; separate into sorts; classify: to sort socks; to sort eggs by grade.
to separate or take from other sorts or from others (often followed by out): to sort the good from the bad;to sort out the children's socks.
to assign to a particular class, group, or place (often followed by with, together, etc.): to sort people together indiscriminately.
Scot.to provide with food and shelter.
Computers. to place (records) in order, as numerical or alphabetical, based on the contents of one or more keys contained in each record.Compare key1 (def. 19).
verb (used without object)
Archaic. to suit; agree; fit.
BritishDialect. to associate, mingle, or be friendly.
Verb Phrases
sort out,
to evolve; develop; turn out: We'll just have to wait and see how things sort out.
to put in order; clarify: After I sort things out here, I'll be able to concentrate on your problem.
Idioms for sort
of sorts,
of a mediocre or poor kind: a tennis player of sorts.
of one sort or another; of an indefinite kind.
Also of a sort .
out of sorts,
in low spirits; depressed.
in poor health; indisposed; ill.
in a bad temper; irritable: to be out of sorts because of the weather.
Printing.short of certain characters of a font of type.
sort of, Informal. in a way; somewhat; rather: Their conversation was sort of tiresome.
Origin of sort
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English noun, from Middle French sorte, from Medieval Latin sort- (stem of sors ) “kind, allotted status or portion, lot,” Latin: originally, “lot (for voting)”; Middle English verb sorten “to allot, arrange, assort,” from Middle French sortir or directly from Latin sortīrī “to draw lots,” derivative of sors; later senses influenced by the noun and by assort
I also noticed that on the sort of holidays and things like that, food was always really central.
Tom Colicchio Hopes (and Fears) COVID-19 Will Change the Restaurant Industry|Pallabi Munsi|September 16, 2020|Ozy
To make the process faster, you should offer some sort of internal website search functionality.
How to drive digital innovation necessary during the pandemic|Nick Chasinov|September 16, 2020|Search Engine Watch
The flipside, of course, is that this is James Harden — the sort of offensive talent that any coach would want the chance to build a system around if given the opportunity.
Everything Should Be On The Table For The Houston Rockets. Even James Harden’s Future.|Chris Herring (chris.herring@fivethirtyeight.com)|September 14, 2020|FiveThirtyEight
To his surprise, he found quite a few reports describing this sort of immune cross-protection.
‘Trained Immunity’ Offers Hope in Fight Against Coronavirus|Esther Landhuis|September 14, 2020|Quanta Magazine
Stylistically, the Mystery Ship looks like a sort of dead end, but thematically, Craig Vetter knew exactly where motorcycles were headed.
22 of the weirdest concept motorcycles ever made|By John Burns/Cycle World|September 10, 2020|Popular Science
Is it sort of evidence of the Gladwellian 10,000 hours theory?
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s Greatness|Marlow Stern|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
I had enough experiences around languages that it just sort of happened.
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s Greatness|Marlow Stern|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
When he was first incarcerated, he says some sort of paperwork snafu had him imprisoned under two different, but similar, names.
His First Day Out Of Jail After 40 Years: Adjusting To Life Outside|Justin Rohrlich|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
But I trusted Tony Robbins could sort me out on both fronts.
Can Self-Help Books Really Make a New You?|Lizzie Crocker|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Luckily, Tor was prepared for this sort of assault, and has built-in defenses to protect against it.
The Attack on the Hidden Internet|Marc Rogers|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Very true it is that proof of the sort desired is often impossible; but it is obtained sometimes.
The Problems of Psychical Research|Hereward Carrington
And then—well, I happen to forget what sort of a day this particular day turned into, about six of the clock.
Library of the World's Best literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 12|Various
You know, looking after the stores and all that sort of thing.
The War-Workers|E.M. Delafield
Lancken stiffened perceptibly at this suggestion and refused, frankly, saying that he could not do anything of the sort.
A Journal From Our Legation in Belgium|Hugh Gibson
I suppose it is a sort of nemesis of wit; the skidding of a wheel in the height of its speed.
George Bernard Shaw|Gilbert K. Chesterton
British Dictionary definitions for sort
sort
/ (sɔːt) /
noun
a class, group, kind, etc, as distinguished by some common quality or characteristic
informaltype of character, nature, etche's a good sort
a more or less definable or adequate exampleit's a sort of review
(often plural)printingany of the individual characters making up a fount of type
archaicmanner; wayin this sort we struggled home
after a sortto some extent
of sortsorof a sort
of an inferior kind
of an indefinite kind
out of sortsnot in normal good health, temper, etc
sort ofinformal
(adverb)in some way or other; as it were; rather
(sentence substitute)used to express reservation or qualified assentI’m only joking. Sort of
verb
(tr)to arrange according to class, type, etc
(tr)to put (something) into working order
(tr)to arrange (computer information) by machine in an order convenient to the computer user
(tr foll by with) informalto supply, esp with drugs
(intr; foll by with, together, etc)archaic, ordialectto associate, as on friendly terms
(intr)archaicto agree; accord
Derived forms of sort
sortable, adjectivesortably, adverbsorter, noun
Word Origin for sort
C14: from Old French, from Medieval Latin sors kind, from Latin: fate