HUGO
  • home
  • A (Topics)
  • countries
  • cities
  • Dictionary
  • contact
  • list
  • quotes
  • A-Z
sort
NOUN:

1. a particular kind, species, variety, class, or group, distinguished by a common character or nature: 
to develop a new sort of painting; nice people, of course, but not really our sort.

2. Sometimes informal. (type of) character, quality, nature, etc: 
young people of a nice sort; people of an evil sort; he's a good sort.

3. an example of something that is undistinguished or barely adequate: 
He is a sort of poet.

4. manner, fashion, or way: 
We spoke in this sort for several minutes.

5. an instance of sorting:
a numeric sort of a data file.

6. a class, group, kind, etc, as distinguished by some common quality or characteristic.

7. a more or less definable or adequate example:
it's a sort of review.

8. a group set up on the basis of any characteristic in common; class, kind.

9. one approximating the character or qualities of another:
a sort of latter-day Abe Lincoln.

10. person, individual: 
he's not a bad sort.

Examples:

What sort of car do you drive? // He's not a bad sort. —Merriam-Webster.

in printing:

1. any of the individual characters making up a font of type.

2. characters of a particular font that are rarely used.

3. (often plural) printing any of the individual characters making up a fount of type.

4. a letter or character that is one element of a font.

5. a character or piece of type that is not part of a regular font.

archaic:

1. manner; way:
in this sort we struggled home.

2. group, company.

3. method or manner of acting; way, manner.

Origin:

First recorded in 1200–50; (noun) Middle English (noun) from Middle French sorte, from Medieval Latin sort- (stem of sors ) “kind, allotted status or portion, lot,” Latin: originally, “voter's lot;” Middle English (verb) sorten “to allot, arrange, assort” (from Middle French sortir ), from Latin sortīrī “to draw lots,” derivative of sors; later senses influenced by the noun and by assort. British dictionary: C14: from Old French, from Medieval Latin sors kind, from Latin: fate. —Dictionary.com. //

First Known Use of sort: Noun: 14th century. Verb: 14th century. History and Etymology for sort: Noun: Middle English, from Anglo-French, fate, lot, characteristic, from Latin sort-, sors lot, share, category — more at series. —Merriam-Webster.

See usage note for sort at Dictionary.com.*

​Sources: 1, 2.

Added: 18 September 2020 {2:33 PM}
  • home
  • A (Topics)
  • countries
  • cities
  • Dictionary
  • contact
  • list
  • quotes
  • A-Z