Definition

1. Noun:

   • A category or type of people or things: A group sharing common qualities or characteristics.
   • A person of a particular character: Used to describe a person's nature or quality.
   • An approximate or vague example: Used to indicate something that is not easily defined or is an approximation.

2. Verb:

   • To arrange items into categories: To separate and organize things based on shared characteristics.
   • To examine and classify: To evaluate items to test their suitability or to place them into ordered groups.

Examples

• Noun:

  • What sort of music do you like? (Asking about a category or type)
  • He's a friendly sort. (Describing a person's character)
  • It's a sort of blue-green color. (Giving an approximate description)

• Verb:

  • Please sort the laundry into lights and darks. (Arranging into categories)
  • The system will sort the data by date. (Organizing based on a criterion)
  • We need to sort the good apples from the bad ones. (Separating based on quality)

Advanced Usage

• "of sorts": Used to indicate that something is a poor, inadequate, or unusual example of a category.
  • It was a meal of sorts, but we were still hungry.
• "out of sorts": Feeling slightly unwell, irritable, or not in one's usual state.
  • She's been out of sorts all day.
• "sort of" (adverbial): To some extent; rather; used to make a statement less definite or forceful. (Informal)
  • I'm sort of tired.
  • It was sort of funny.

Variants and Related Words

• Sorter (n): A person or machine that sorts things.
  • A mail sorter.
• Sorting (n): The action or process of classifying or arranging.
  • The sorting of recyclables is important.

Synonyms

• Noun: Type, kind, variety, category, class, breed, ilk.
• Verb: Classify, categorize, organize, arrange, separate, sift.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Sort out:
  • To organize or resolve a problem or messy situation.

    • It took hours to sort out the paperwork.
  • To separate something from a group.

    • Can you sort out the red tiles?
  • (British English) To deal with someone who is causing problems.

    • I'll sort him out if he bothers you again.
• Sort through: To look through a collection of things in order to find something or organize it.
  • She had to sort through a box of old letters.

Related Idioms

• A good sort: (Informal, chiefly British) A likeable, reliable, or kind person.
  • Don't worry, he's a good sort.
• It takes all sorts (to make a world): A saying meaning that people are very different and one must be tolerant of others' unusual qualities or behavior.
  • He collects bottle caps? Well, it takes all sorts.

Noun

1. an operation that segregates items into groups according to a specified criterion
   • the bottleneck in mail delivery is the process of sorting
2. a person of a particular character or nature
   • what sort of person is he?
   • he's a good sort
3. an approximate definition or example
   • she wore a sort of magenta dress
   • she served a creamy sort of dessert thing
4. a category of things distinguished by some common characteristic or quality
   • sculpture is a form of art
   • what kinds of desserts are there?

Verb

1. arrange or order by classes or categories
   • How would you classify these pottery shards--are they prehistoric?
2. examine in order to test suitability
   • screen these samples
   • screen the job applicants