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sort

1. A kind or species; any number or collection of individual persons or things characterised 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.

2. Manner; form of being or acting. Which for my part I covet to perform, In sort as through the world I did proclaim. (Spenser) Flowers, in such sort worn, can neither be smelt nor seen well by those that wear them. (hooker) I'll deceive you in another sort. (Shak) To adam in what sort Shall I appear? (milton) I shall not be wholly without praise, if in some sort I have copied his style. (Dryden)

3. Condition above the vulgar; rank.

4. A chance group; a company of persons who happen to be together; a troop; also, an assemblage of animals. A sort of shepherds. A sort of steers. A sort of doves. A sort of rogues. A boy, a child, and we a sort of us, Vowed against his voyage. (Chapman)

5. A pair; a set; a suit.

6. Letters, figures, points, marks, spaces, or quadrats, belonging to a case, separately considered. Out of sorts, to use or require a greater number of some particular letters, figures, or marks than the regular proportion, as, for example, in making an index.

Synonym: Kind, species, rank, condition.

Sort, Kind. Kind originally denoted things of the same family, or bound]] together by some natural affinity; and hence, a class. Sort signifies that which constitutes a particular lot of parcel, not implying necessarily the idea of affinity, but of mere assemblage. The two words are now used to a great extent interchangeably, though sort (perhaps from its original meaning of lot) sometimes carries with it a slight tone of disparagement or contempt, as when we say, that sort of people, that sort of language. Surprisingly, type is not included in this synonym-list! in MW10, the list under type includes kind and sort. class is mentioned in the def, but not on the list of synonyms. As when the total kind Of birds, in orderly array on wing, Came summoned over Eden to receive Their names of there. (milton) None of noble sort Would so offend a virgin. (Shak)

Origin: F. Sorie (cf. It. Sorta, sorte), from L. Sors, sorti, a lot, part, probably akin to serere to connect. See Series, and cf. Assort, Consort, Resort, Sorcery, Sort lot.

1. To separate, and place in distinct classes or divisions, as things having different qualities; as, to sort cloths according to their colours; to sort wool or thread according to its fineness. Rays which differ in refrangibility may be parted and sorted from one another. (Sir I. Newton)

2. To reduce to order from a confused state.

3. To conjoin; to put together in distribution; to class. Shellfish have been, by some of the ancients, compared and sorted with insects. (bacon) She sorts things present with things past. (Sir J. Davies)

4. To choose from a number; to select; to cull. That he may sort out a worthy spouse. (Chapman) I'll sort some other time to visit you. (Shak)

5. To conform; to adapt; to accommodate. I pray thee, sort thy heart to patience. (Shak)

Origin: Sorted; Sorting.