1. A group of persons or things of the same general character; a kind. 2. Character or nature: books of all sorts.3. 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, Daniel Deronda 1876). 4. A person; an individual: The clerk is a decent sort.5. A way of acting or behaving. 6.sortsPrinting One of the characters in a font of type. 7. An act or instance of sorting: did a sort on the columns of data.
TRANSITIVE VERB:
Inflected forms: sort·ed, sort·ing, sorts 1. To arrange according to class, kind, or size; classify. See synonyms at arrange. 2. To separate from others: sort out the wheat from the chaff.3. 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.ofsorts(or a sort)1. Of a mediocre or inferior kind: a constitutional government of a sort.2. Of one kind or another: knew many folktales of sorts.out of sorts1. Slightly ill. 2. Irritable; cross: The teacher is out of sorts this morning.sort ofInformal Somewhat; rather: “Gambling and prostitution . . . have been prohibited, but only sort of” (George F. Will).
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English, from Old French, from Latin sors, sort-, lot. See ser-2 in Appendix I.
sôrt
a·ble —ADJECTIVE
