What does sort mean?

Definitions for sort
sɔrtsort

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word sort.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. kind, sort, form, varietynoun

    a category of things distinguished by some common characteristic or quality

    "sculpture is a form of art"; "what kinds of desserts are there?"

  2. sortnoun

    an approximate definition or example

    "she wore a sort of magenta dress"; "she served a creamy sort of dessert thing"

  3. sortnoun

    a person of a particular character or nature

    "what sort of person is he?"; "he's a good sort"

  4. sort, sortingverb

    an operation that segregates items into groups according to a specified criterion

    "the bottleneck in mail delivery is the process of sorting"

  5. screen, screen out, sieve, sortverb

    examine in order to test suitability

    "screen these samples"; "screen the job applicants"

  6. classify, class, sort, assort, sort out, separateverb

    arrange or order by classes or categories

    "How would you classify these pottery shards--are they prehistoric?"

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Sortnoun

    Etymology: sorte, French.

    Disfigur’d more than spirit of happy sort. John Milton.

    A substantial and unaffected piety, not only gives a man a credit among the sober and virtuous, but even among the vicious sort of men. John Tillotson.

    These three sorts of poems should differ in their numbers, designs, and every thought. William Walsh.

    Endeavouring to make the signification of specifick names clear, they make their specifick ideas of the sorts of substances of a few of those simple ideas found in them. John Locke.

    Flowers in such sort worn, can neither be smelt nor seen well by those that wear them. Richard Hooker.

    That I may laugh at her in equal sort
    As she doth laugh at me, and makes my pain her sport. Edmund Spenser, Sonnet.

    Rheum and Shimshai wrote after this sort. Ezra iv. 8.

    To Adam in what sort shall I appear? John Milton.

    I have written the more boldly unto you, in some sort, as putting you in mind. Rom. xv. 15.

    I shall not be wholly without praise, if in some sort I have copied his stile. Dryden.

    The one being a thing that belongeth generally unto all, the other, such as none but the wiser and more judicious sort can perform. Richard Hooker.

    I have bought
    Golden opinions from all sorts of people. William Shakespeare.

    Hospitality to the better sort, and charity to the poor, two virtues that are never exercised so well as when they accompany each other. Francis Atterbury, Sermons.

    Mine eyes are full of tears: I cannot see;
    And yet salt water blinds them not so much,
    But they can see a sort of traitors here. William Shakespeare.

    Is signior Montanto returned from the wars? —— I know none of that name, lady; there was none such in the army of any sort. William Shakespeare, Much ado about Nothing.

    Make a lott’ry,
    And by decree, let blockish Ajax
    Draw the sort to fight with Hector. William Shakespeare.

    The first sort by their own suggestion fell. John Milton.

  2. To Sortverb

    Etymology: Sortiri, Lat. assortire, Italian.

    These they sorted into their several times and places; some to begin the service of God with, and some to end; some to be interlac’d between the divine readings of the law and prophets. Richard Hooker.

    I come to thee for charitable licence,
    To sort our nobles from our common men. William Shakespeare.

    A piece of cloth made of white and black threads though the whole appear neither white nor black, but grey; yet each remains what it was before, if the threads were pulled asunder, and sorted each colour by itself. Boyle.

    Shell-fish have been, by some of the ancients, compared and sorted with the insects. Francis Bacon, Natural History.

    With this desire, she hath a native might
    To find out ev’ry truth, if she had time;
    Th’ innumerable effects to sort aright,
    And by degrees from cause to cause to climb. Davies.

    The number of simple ideas, that make the nominal essence of the lowest species, or first sorting of individuals, depends on the mind of man. John Locke.

    The rays which differ in refrangibility may be parted and sorted from one another, and that either by refraction, or by reflexion. Isaac Newton, Opticks.

    But grant that actions best discover man,
    Take the most strong and sort them as you can;
    The few that glare, each character must mark:
    You balance not the many in the dark. Alexander Pope.

    Let me not be light;
    For a light wife doth make a heavy husband;
    And never be Bassanio so from me;
    But God sort all! William Shakespeare, Merch. of Venice.

    For, when she sorts things present with things past,
    And thereby things to come doth oft foresee;
    When she doth doubt at first, and chuse at first,
    These acts her own, without her body be. Davies.

    Send his mother to his father’s house,
    That he may sort her out a worthy spouse. George Chapman.

  3. To Sortverb

    Nor do metals only sort and herd with metals in the earth, and minerals with minerals; but both in common together. John Woodward.

    The illiberality of parents towards their children, makes them base and sort with any company. Francis Bacon.

    A man cannot speak to a son but as a father; whereas a friend may speak as the case requires, and not as it sorteth with the person. Francis Bacon.

    They are happy whose natures sort with their vocations. Francis Bacon.

    Among unequals, what society
    Can sort, what harmony, or true delight?
    Which must be mutual, in proportion due,
    Giv’n, and receiv’d. John Milton, Paradise Lost.

    The Creator calling forth by name
    His mighty angels, gave them several charge,
    As sorted best with present things. John Milton, Paradise Lost.

    For diff’rent stiles with diff’rent subjects sort,
    As several garbs with country, town, and court. Alexander Pope.

    It sorted not to any fight of importance, but to a retreat. Francis Bacon, War with Spain.

    The slips of their vines have been brought into Spain, but they have not sorted to the same purpose as in their native country. George Abbot, Description of the World.

    It was tried in a blown bladder, whereunto flesh and a flower were put, and it sorted not; for dry bladders will not blow, and new bladders further putrefaction. Francis Bacon.

    And so far am I glad it did so sort,
    As this their jangling I esteem a sport. William Shakespeare.

    Princes cannot gather this fruit, except they raise some persons to be companions; which many times sorteth to inconvenience. Francis Bacon.

Wikipedia

  1. Sort

    The Treaty Between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Strategic Offensive Reductions (SORT), also known as the Treaty of Moscow, was a strategic arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia that was in force from June 2003 until February 2011 when it was superseded by the New START treaty.At the time, SORT was positioned as "represent[ing] an important element of the new strategic relationship" between the two countries with both parties agreeing to limit their nuclear arsenal to between 1,700 and 2,200 operationally deployed warheads each. It was signed in Moscow on 24 May 2002. After ratification by the U.S. Senate and the State Duma, SORT came into force on 1 June 2003. It would have expired on 31 December 2012 if not superseded by New START. Either party could have withdrawn from the treaty upon giving three months written notice to the other.

ChatGPT

  1. sort

    Sort refers to the process of organizing, arranging, or categorizing items or data according to certain properties, characteristics, or criteria. This can involve arranging data in a specific sequence or order, such as ascending, descending, alphabetical, chronological, or numerical. Sorting can apply in various contexts such as in computing, mathematics, or everyday activities.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Sortnoun

    chance; lot; destiny

  2. Sortnoun

    a kind or species; any number or collection of individual persons or things characterized by the same or like qualities; a class or order; as, a sort of men; a sort of horses; a sort of trees; a sort of poems

  3. Sortnoun

    manner; form of being or acting

  4. Sortnoun

    condition above the vulgar; rank

  5. Sortnoun

    a chance group; a company of persons who happen to be together; a troop; also, an assemblage of animals

  6. Sortnoun

    a pair; a set; a suit

  7. Sortnoun

    letters, figures, points, marks, spaces, or quadrats, belonging to a case, separately considered

  8. Sortverb

    to separate, and place in distinct classes or divisions, as things having different qualities; as, to sort cloths according to their colors; to sort wool or thread according to its fineness

  9. Sortverb

    to reduce to order from a confused state

  10. Sortverb

    to conjoin; to put together in distribution; to class

  11. Sortverb

    to choose from a number; to select; to cull

  12. Sortverb

    to conform; to adapt; to accommodate

  13. Sortverb

    to join or associate with others, esp. with others of the same kind or species; to agree

  14. Sortverb

    to suit; to fit; to be in accord; to harmonize

  15. Etymology: [F. sorl, L. sors, sortis. See Sort kind.]

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Sort

    sort, n. a number of persons or things having like qualities: class, kind, or species: order or rank: manner.—v.t. to separate into lots or classes: to put together: to select: to procure, adapt: to geld: (Scot.) to adjust, put right, dispose, fix: to punish.—v.i. to be joined with others of the same sort: to associate: to suit.—adj. Sort′able, capable of being sorted: (Bacon) suitable, befitting.—ns. Sort′ance (Shak.), suitableness, agreement; Sort′er, one who separates and arranges, as letters; Sort′es, lots used in divination by passages selected by hazard from the Bible, Homer, Virgil, &c.; Sort′ilege, the act or practice of divination by drawing lots; Sorti′tion, the casting of lots; Sort′ment, act of sorting.—In a sort (Shak.), in a manner; In sort, inasmuch as; Out of sorts, out of order, unwell: (print.) with some sorts of type in the font exhausted. [O. Fr. sorte—L. sors, sortis, a lot—serĕre, to join.]

Dictionary of Nautical Terms

  1. sort

    "That's your sort," means approval of a deed.

Editors Contribution

  1. sort

    To put into a specific order.

    They did sort their clothing out when winter was complete to ensure they had their Spring clothing ready.


    Submitted by MaryC on March 10, 2020  

Suggested Resources

  1. SORT

    What does SORT stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the SORT acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'sort' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #748

  2. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'sort' in Written Corpus Frequency: #173

  3. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'sort' in Nouns Frequency: #143

  4. Verbs Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'sort' in Verbs Frequency: #494

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

How to pronounce sort?

How to say sort in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of sort in Chaldean Numerology is: 7

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of sort in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of sort in a Sentence

  1. Solomon Hsiang:

    There is sort of an optimal temperature band where countries seem to do really well from an economic standpoint and there is on either side there are temperatures that are too cold and temperatures that are too hot.

  2. Megan Rapinoe:

    I think that the huge media splash of the lawsuit is behind us and were obviously focused on the World Cup, but also its like this is our life, and there are a lot of things that we have to grapple and deal with: Family, friends, partners, media, pressures, games, World Cup, travel. So its just kind of just one more thing. This team always has a lot of media attention, and weve always had a lot of things on our plate so its not like its anything new, or all of a sudden were getting all the more attention. Its sort of the same for us.

  3. The President:

    I've talked about it too, but it's not -- it is not healthy to have these games teaching kids that, you know, this dispassionate notion that you can shoot somebody and just, you know, sort of blow their brains out, it's not in and of itself the reason why we have this carnage on our streets.

  4. Michael Addis:

    I think it’s a sign that we’re better prepared than we were a quarter of a century ago to acknowledge emotional and physical health problems in men because, of course, all that sort of traditional laws of masculinity teach us to hide that.

  5. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld:

    Andy Jassy brings quite a degree of humility ; people didn't quite realize who Andy Jassy was until recently, andy Jassy's definitely very humble, Andy Jassy's not Andy Jassy, which is sort of unusual to be at this level in the tech space.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

sort#1#923#10000

Translations for sort

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

  • sortering, tipe, soort, sorteeralgoritme, kategoriseer, rangskik, groepeer, sorteer, klassifiseerAfrikaans
  • প্রকারBengali
  • mena, classe, tipus, varietat, gènere, classificar, arreglar, reparar, ordenarCatalan, Valencian
  • seřadit, řadit, tříditCzech
  • sort, sortering, slags, løse, sortereDanish
  • Art, sortieren, Letter, SorteGerman
  • clase, género, tipo, ordenar, suerte, clasificar, surtir, especieSpanish
  • järjestamaEstonian
  • مرتب‌سازیPersian
  • lajittelu, sortti, tyyppi, aakkostus, sorttaus, järjestely, laji, erotella, aakkostaa, järjestää, lajitellaFinnish
  • slagFaroese
  • tri, type, genre, triage, acabit, trier, classer, rangerFrench
  • sórtIrish
  • gnè, seòrsaScottish Gaelic
  • מיון, סוג, סידור, סדר, מייןHebrew
  • válogat, fajta, féleHungarian
  • տիպ, սեռArmenian
  • sort, gerð, tegund, flokkaIcelandic
  • specie, tipo, genere, classificare, mettere in ordineItalian
  • ソート, 並べ替え, 人, ソートアルゴリズム, 類い, 種類, 分類, 整列, 選別Japanese
  • ტიპიGeorgian
  • ZortLuxembourgish, Letzeburgesch
  • ຊະນິດLao
  • slags, sortNorwegian
  • soort, sorteren, rangschikkenDutch
  • slags, sortNorwegian Nynorsk
  • sortereNorwegian
  • rodzaj, typ, sortowaniePolish
  • tipo, ordenar, arrumar, classificarPortuguese
  • gen, fel, aranja, împărți, sorta, clasificaRomanian
  • тип, [[алгоритм]] [[сортировка, сортировка, вид, сорт, разобраться, отсортировать, разобрать, разбирать, сортировать, разбиратьсяRussian
  • soj, farëAlbanian
  • sorteringsalgoritm, typ, sort, sortering, slag, fixa, sortera, ordnaSwedish
  • రకము, అమరిక, అమర్చు, పేర్చుTelugu
  • uri, klaseTagalog
  • soy, cinsTurkish
  • сортуватиUkrainian
  • 排序Chinese

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    transmitting light; able to be seen through with clarity
    A plush
    B tight
    C occasional
    D transparent

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