sort
(sôrt)
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin sors, sort-, lot.]
noun
- A group of persons or things of the same general character; a kind.
- Character or nature: books of all sorts.
- One that exemplifies the characteristics of or serves a similar function to another: “A large dinner-party … made a sort of general introduction for her to the society of the neighbourhood” (George Eliot)
- A person; an individual: The clerk is a decent sort.
- A way of acting or behaving.
- Printing One of the characters in a font of type.
- An act or instance of sorting: did a sort on the columns of data.
transitive verb: sort·ed, sort·ing, sorts.
- To arrange according to class, kind, or size; classify. See synonyms at arrange
- To separate from others: sort out the wheat from the chaff.
- To clarify by going over mentally: She tried to sort out her problems.
idioms
- after a sort
- In a haphazard or imperfect way: managed to paint the chair after a sort.
- of sorts
- Of a mediocre or inferior kind: a constitutional government of a sort. Of one kind or another: knew many folktales of sorts.
- out of sorts
- Slightly ill. Irritable; cross: The teacher is out of sorts this morning.
- sort of
- Somewhat; rather: “Gambling and prostitution . . . have been prohibited, but only sort of” (George F. Will)
derivatives
- sort́a·ble
- adjective
- sort́er
- noun
