Pronunciations (4)
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/soɹt/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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/sɔːt/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/soːt/
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
- New-Zealand
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/sɔɹt/
Pronunciation notes
- Ireland
- Scotland
Noun
A general type.
- Examples
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More examples (4)
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.
“[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer.[…]”
The face which emerged was not reassuring.[…]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls.
Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths.
Manner, way; form of being or acting.
Usage- Archaic
- Examples
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More examples (2)
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 […]
Such is that argument whereby they that wore on their heads garlands are charged as transgressors of nature’s law, and guilty of sacrilege against God the Lord of nature, inasmuch as flowers, in such sort worn can neither be smelt nor seen well by those that wear them; and God made flowers sweet and beautiful, that being seen and smelt unto, they might so delight.
I’ll deceive you in another sort
More examples (3)
But to Adam in what sort Shall I appeer? shall I to him make known As yet my change, and give him to partake Full happiness with mee, or rather not, But keep the odds of Knowledge within my power Without copartner?
I acknowledge, with Segrais, that I have not succeeded in this attempt, according to my desire: yet I shall not be wholly without praise, if in some sort I may be allow’d to have copied the Clearness, the Purity, the Easiness and the Magnificence of his stile.
Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.
With the might of that throw Goldry’s wrath departed from him and left him strengthless, in such sort that he reeled as he went from the wrastling ground.
Condition above the vulgar; rank.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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More examples (1)
“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.”
A person evaluated in a certain way.
Usage- Informal
- Examples
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good sort, bad sort
More examples (1)
There is no problem with this and he seems to be a decent sort with very good reflexes. I will have Felix replaced with him when we get back to Washington because he is more acceptable.
Amo, he is the prince. And he is a good sort. You, My Husband, should be among his circle
More examples (1)
One doesn't need to be Einstein to realize he is a bad sort / My wife always said as much.
Group, company.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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a sort of shepherds suing of the Chace
a sort of doves were housed too near their hall
More examples (2)
What good got you by wearing out your feet, To run on scurvy errands to the poor, and to bear mony to a sort of rogues And lousy prisoners?
A boy, a child, and we a sort of us, Vowed against his voyage, yet admit it thus!
A good-looking woman.
Usage- Australia
- UK usage
- Informal
An act of sorting.
- Examples
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I had a sort of my cupboard.
An algorithm for sorting a list of items into a particular sequence.
- Examples
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Popular algorithms for sorts include quicksort and heapsort.
The fastest general algorithm we have considered that sorts keys in a stable manner is the list merge sort, but it does not use minimum storage
A piece of metal type used to print one letter, character, or symbol in a particular size and style.
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Green managed to recover a total of 151 sorts (the name for individual pieces of type) out of a possible 500,000.
A type.
Fate, fortune, destiny.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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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.
Anything used to determine the answer to a question by chance; lot.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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No, make a lottery; And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw The sort to fight with Hector.
A full set of anything, such as a pair of shoes or a suit of clothes.
Usage- Obsolete
Verb
To separate items into different categories according to certain criteria that determine their sorts.
Usage- Transitive
- Synonyms
- Examples
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Sort the letters in those bags into a separate pile for each language.
More examples (3)
And seeing the Rays which differ in Refrangibility may be parted and sorted from one another, and that either by Refraction..., or by Reflexion..., and then the several sorts apart at equal Incidences suffer unequal Refractions,...; it's manifest that the Sun's Light is an heterogeneous Mixture of Rays..., as was proposed.
"Is there a man among ye has the Gaelic? ... Is there a man among ye can speak English even? ... Is there a man among ye at all? Ye gang o' lasceevious auld de'ils, decked oot like weemin, in spite o' yer hairy long whuskers, full beards and full skirts, ye deceitful besoms. Whuskers and petticoats wi' the vices o' both and the virtues o' neither. I'll sorrt ye." And there were sounds of alarums and excursions within.
Jaime finally leaves her [Cersei], walking right past his imminent executioner, and rides out of King’s Landing, finally neatly sorting our humans into good and evil and Bronn.
To arrange into some sequence, usually numerically, alphabetically or chronologically.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Sort those bells into a row in ascending sequence of pitch.
To conjoin; to put together in distribution; to class.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Shellfish have been, by some of the ancients, compared and sorted with insecta.
More examples (1)
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 last, These acts her owne, without her body bee.
To conform; to adapt; to accommodate.
Usage- Obsolete
- Transitive
- Examples
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I pray thee, sort thy heart to patience.
To choose from a number; to select; to cull.
Usage- Obsolete
- Transitive
- Examples
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To send his mother to her father's house, that he may sort her out a worthy spouse
I'll sort some other time to visit you.
To join or associate with others, especially with others of the same kind or species; to agree.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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More examples (2)
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.
Nor do Metalls only sort and herd with Metalls in the Earth : and Minerals with Minerals : but both indifferently and in common together: Iron with Vitriol, with Alum, with Sulphur: Copper with Sulphur, with Vitriol, &c. yea Iron, Copper, Lead, Nitre, Sulphur, Vitriol, and perhaps some more in one and the same Mass.
To suit; to fit; to be in accord; to harmonize.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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More examples (2)
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.
I cannot tell ye precisely how they sorted; but they agreed sae right that Donald was invited to dance at the wedding in his Highland trews, and they said that there was never sae meikle siller clinked in his purse either before or since.
To fix (a problem) or handle (a task).
Usage- UK usage
- Colloquial
- Transitive
- Synonyms
- Examples
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‘Does rewilding sort climate change? Yes!’: UK expert says nature can save planet and not harm farming [title]
To attack physically.
Usage- UK usage
- Colloquial
- Transitive
- Synonyms
- Examples
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If he comes nosing around here again I'll sort him!
To geld.
Usage- Transitive
Noun
a category of things distinguished by some common characteristic or quality
- Broader terms
- Examples
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sculpture is a form of art
what kinds of desserts are there?
an approximate definition or example
- Broader terms
- Examples
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she wore a sort of magenta dress
she served a creamy sort of dessert thing
a person of a particular character or nature
- Examples
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what sort of person is he?
he's a good sort
an operation that segregates items into groups according to a specified criterion
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the bottleneck in mail delivery is the process of sorting
Verb
examine in order to test suitability
- Synonyms
- Examples
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screen these samples
screen the job applicants
arrange or order by classes or categories
- Broader terms
- Examples
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How would you classify these pottery shards — are they prehistoric?