sort
verb/sɔːt/
/sɔːrt/
Verb Forms
Idioms Phrasal Verbs| present simple I / you / we / they sort | /sɔːt/ /sɔːrt/ |
| he / she / it sorts | /sɔːts/ /sɔːrts/ |
| past simple sorted | /ˈsɔːtɪd/ /ˈsɔːrtɪd/ |
| past participle sorted | /ˈsɔːtɪd/ /ˈsɔːrtɪd/ |
| -ing form sorting | /ˈsɔːtɪŋ/ /ˈsɔːrtɪŋ/ |
- to arrange things in groups or in a particular order according to their type, etc.; to separate things of one type from others
- sort something I started at the bottom, answering phones and sorting the mail.
- sort something into something The computer sorts the words into alphabetical order.
- Rubbish can easily be separated and sorted into plastics, glass and paper.
- sort something from something Women and children sorted the ore from the rock.
- sort something by something Events are sorted by date and category.
Extra Examples- Sort the books according to their subject matter.
- The most common way of grouping was to sort the children by ability.
- The documents were sorted by age and type.
- We sorted the washing into piles of different garments.
- Waste is sorted for recycling.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- busily
- according to
- by
- into
- …
- begin sorting something
- start sorting something
- begin sorting through something
- …
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- [often passive] sort something (especially British English, informal) to deal with a problem successfully or organize something/somebody properly
- I'm really busy—can you sort it?
- Everything's now been sorted.
- The problem with my broadband still hasn't been sorted.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- out
- have to
- try to
- help to
- …
- get something sorted
- get something sorted out
Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French sorte, from an alteration of Latin sors, sort- ‘lot, condition’.
Idioms
See sort in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee sort in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishseparate/sort out the men from the boys
- to show or prove who is brave, skilful, etc. and who is not
sort out/separate the sheep from the goats
- to recognize the difference between people who are good at something, intelligent, etc. and those who are not
sort out/separate the wheat from the chaff
- to recognize the difference between useful or valuable people or things and ones that are not useful or have no value
- We sifted through the application forms to sort out the wheat from the chaff.
Check pronunciation:
sort