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PlainSpell

sort

/soɹt/noun, verb

sort is spelled S-O-R-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 100 times per million words in written English, the 1,076th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, sort means “A general type” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sort is sorts.

How many letters and syllables are in sort?

Letters4: S-O-R-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing100 times per million words; the 1,076th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is sort?

Sort appears 100 times per million words in written English, the 1,076th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce sort?

  • US /soɹt/
  • UK /sɔːt/
  • Australia /soːt/

Sort has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-sort.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-sort.wav, En-au-sort.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with sort?

7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as sort from its last stressed vowel (/oɹt/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: rost.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of sort

  • sorts plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • sorting participle, present
  • sorted participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does sort mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A general type.

  2. 2

    archaicManner, way; form of being or acting.

  3. 3

    obsoleteCondition above the vulgar; rank.

  4. 4

    informalA person evaluated in a certain way.

    good sort, bad sort

  5. 5

    obsoleteGroup, company.

  6. 6

    AustraliaUKinformalA good-looking woman.

  7. 7

    An act of sorting.

    I had a sort of my cupboard.

  8. 8

    An algorithm for sorting a list of items into a particular sequence.

    Popular algorithms for sorts include quicksort and heapsort.

verb

  1. 1

    To separate items into different categories according to certain criteria that determine their sorts.

    Sort the letters in those bags into a separate pile for each language.

  2. 2

    To arrange into some sequence, usually numerically, alphabetically or chronologically.

    Sort those bells into a row in ascending sequence of pitch.

  3. 3

    To conjoin; to put together in distribution; to class.

  4. 4

    obsoleteTo conform; to adapt; to accommodate.

  5. 5

    obsoleteTo choose from a number; to select; to cull.

  6. 6

    To join or associate with others, especially with others of the same kind or species; to agree.

  7. 7

    To suit; to fit; to be in accord; to harmonize.

  8. 8

    UKcolloquialTo fix (a problem) or handle (a task).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Sort in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchtype, genre, acabit (type), triage (act of sorting), tri (computing algorithm), trier (separate according to certain criteria)
GermanArt, Sorte (type), sortieren (separate according to certain criteria), Letter ((typography) metal type)
Portuguesetipo, sorte (type), ordenação (act of sorting), ordenador (computing algorithm), classificar, coar (separate according to certain criteria)
Spanishgénero, suerte, índole, calaña, ralea, laya (type)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does sort come from?

From Middle English sort, soort, sorte (cognate Dutch soort, German Sorte, Danish sort, Swedish sort), borrowed from Old French sorte (“class, kind”), from Latin sortem, accusative form of sors (“lot, fate, share, rank, category”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after sort