sort
n. countablen. a group of things that are similar in some way. You use it when you want to talk about a type or kind of person or object.
n. a category of things or people with common features or characteristics. Often functions as a synonym for 'kind' or 'type' in general discourse.
What sort of music do you like to hear?
The shop sells every sort of tool you might need for a home repair project.
While he was generally a friendly sort, he tended to become quite reclusive when working on a new manuscript.
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”).
From Middle English sorten, from Old French sortir (“to allot, sort”), from Latin sortīre (“draw lots, divide, choose”), from sors.
Commonly followed by the preposition 'of' and a noun phrase.
these sort of thingsthis sort of thingThe noun 'sort' must agree in number with the demonstrative; use 'this sort' for singular or 'these sorts' for plural.