sorting

sort  (sôrt)

n.

1. A group of persons or things of the same general character; a kind.

2. Character or nature: books of all sorts.

3. One that exemplifies the characteristics of or serves a similar function to another: "A large dinner-party ... made a sort of general introduction for her to the society of the neighbourhood" George Eliot.

4. A person; an individual: The clerk is a decent sort.

5. A way of acting or behaving.

6. sorts Printing One of the characters in a font of type.

7. An act or instance of sorting: did a sort on the columns of data.

tr.v. sort·ed, sort·ing, sorts

1. To arrange according to class, kind, or size; classify. See Synonyms at arrange.

2. To separate from others: sort out the wheat from the chaff.

3. To clarify by going over mentally: She tried to sort out her problems.

Idioms:

after a sort

In a haphazard or imperfect way: managed to paint the chair after a sort.

of sorts/a sort

1. Of a mediocre or inferior kind: a constitutional government of a sort.

2. Of one kind or another: knew many folktales of sorts.

out of sorts

1. Slightly ill.

2. Irritable; cross: The teacher is out of sorts this morning.

sort of Informal

Somewhat; rather: "Gambling and prostitution . . . have been prohibited, but only sort of" George F. Will.

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[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin sors, sort-, lot; see ser-² in Indo-European roots.]

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sorta·ble adj.

sorter n.

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sorting  (sôrtng)

1. The process by which sediment particles that have a certain characteristic, such as a given shape or grain size, are separated from other associated particles by an active agent of transportation, such as wind, a stream, or a glacier.

2. A measure of the degree to which this process has occurred within a body of sediment. Wind-blown sediments are usually well-sorted because only a small range of grain sizes can be lifted by a particular wind velocity. Glacially derived sediments are usually poorly sorted because of the great range of particle sizes that are picked up by a moving glacier.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	sorting - an operation that segregates items into groups according to a specified criterion; "the bottleneck in mail delivery is the process of sorting" sort operation - (computer science) data processing in which the result is completely specified by a rule (especially the processing that results from a single instruction); "it can perform millions of operations per second"
	2.	sorting - the basic cognitive process of arranging into classes or categories categorisation, categorization, classification coordination - being of coordinate importance, rank, or degree basic cognitive process - cognitive processes involved in obtaining and storing knowledge appraisal, assessment - the classification of someone or something with respect to its worth ascription, attribution - assigning to a cause or source; "the attribution of lighting to an expression of God's wrath"; "he questioned the attribution of the painting to Picasso" ascription, attribution - assigning some quality or character to a person or thing; "the attribution of language to birds"; "the ascription to me of honors I had not earned" cross-classification, cross-division - classification according to more than one attribute at the same time; "the cross-classification of cases was done by age and sex" subsumption - incorporating something under a more general category
	3.	sorting - grouping by class or kind or size grouping - the activity of putting things together in groups triage - sorting and allocating aid on the basis of need for or likely benefit from medical treatment or food separation - sorting one thing from others; "the separation of wheat from chaff"; "the separation of mail by postal zones"

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In counterdrug operations, the process involved in differentiating traffic that could be involved in drug trafficking from legitimate air traffic. Initial sorting criteria are established jointly by the US Coast Guard and US Customs Service, coordinated with Department of Defense counterparts, and disseminated as required. See also counterdrug operations.