1. [n]  an approximate definition or example; "she wore a sort of magenta dress"; "she served a creamy sort of dessert thing"
2. [n]  a category of things distinguished by some common characteristic or quality; "sculpture is a form of art"; "what kinds of desserts are there?"
3. [n]  a person of a particular character or nature; "what sort of person is he?"; "he's a good sort"
4. [n]  an operation that segregates items into groups according to a specified criterion; "the bottleneck in mail delivery it the process of sorting"
5. [v]  arrange or order by classes or categories; "How would you classify these pottery shards--are they prehistoric?"
6. [v]  examine in order to test suitability; "screen these samples"; "screen the job applicants"

1. \Sort\, n. [F. sorl, L. sors, sortis. See {Sort} kind.]
   Chance; lot; destiny. [Obs.]
         By aventure, or sort, or cas [chance].   --Chaucer.
         Let blockish Ajax draw The sort to fight with Hector.
                                                  --Shak.
   

2. \Sort\, n. [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. A kind or species; any number or collection of individual
      persons or things characterized 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. [Obs.] --Shak.
   4. A chance group; a company of persons who happen to be
      together; a troop; also, an assemblage of animals. [Obs.]
      ``A sort of shepherds.'' --Spenser. ``A sort of steers.''
      --Spenser. ``A sort of doves.'' --Dryden. ``A sort of
      rogues.'' --Massinger.
            A boy, a child, and we a sort of us, Vowed against
            his voyage.                           --Chapman.
   5. A pair; a set; a suit. --Johnson.
   6. pl. (Print.) Letters, figures, points, marks, spaces, or
      quadrats, belonging to a case, separately considered.
   {Out of sorts} (Print.), with some letters or sorts of type
      deficient or exhausted in the case or font; hence,
      colloquially, out of order; ill; vexed; disturbed.
   {To run upon sorts} (Print.), 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.
   Syn: Kind; species; rank; condition.
   Usage: {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.
      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.
   

3. \Sort\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Sorted}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Sorting}.]
   1. To separate, and place in distinct classes or divisions,
      as things having different qualities; as, to sort cloths
      according to their colors; 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. --Hooker.
   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. [R.]
            I pray thee, sort thy heart to patience. --Shak.
   

4. \Sort\, v. i.
   1. To join or associate with others, esp. with others of the
      same kind or species; to agree.
            Nor do metals only sort and herd with metals in the
            earth, and minerals with minerals.    --Woodward.
            The illiberality of parents towards children makes
            them base, and sort with any company. --Bacon.
   2. To suit; to fit; to be in accord; to harmonize.
            They are happy whose natures sort with their
            vocations.                            --Bacon.
            Things sort not to my will.           --herbert.
            I can not tell you precisely how they sorted. --Sir
                                                  W. Scott.
   

1. To arrange a collection of items in some specified order. The items - records in a file or data structures in memory - consist of one or more fields or members. One of these fields is designated as the "sort key" which means the records will be ordered according to the value of that field. Sometimes a sequence of key fields is specified such that if all earlier keys are equal then the later keys will be compared. Within each field some ordering is imposed, e.g. ascending or descending numerical, lexical ordering, or date.

Sorting is the subject of a great deal of study since it is a common operation which can consume a lot of computer time. There are many well-known sorting algorithms with different time and space behaviour and programming complexity.

Examples are quicksort, insertion sort, bubble sort, heap sort, and tree sort. These employ many different data structures to store sorted data, such as arrays, linked lists, and binary trees.

2. The Unix utility program for sorting lines of files.

Unix manual page: sort(1).