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sort of. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
sort of, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
sort of in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
sort of you have here. The definition of the word
sort of will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
sort of, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From a reanalysis of "sort of" in a phrase such as "a sort of merry dance" from noun ("sort") and preposition ("of") from the prepositional phrase "of merry dance" to adverb modifying "merry".
Pronunciation
Adverb
sort of (not comparable)
- (idiomatic, colloquial) Approximately; in a way; partially; not quite; somewhat.
It sort of makes sense the way he explains it, but I still don't really understand.
1916 March 11, Charles E. Van Loan, “His Folks”, in Saturday Evening Post:"Why—why, we sort of expected he'd be here!" says she.
1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.
2023 April 5, RAIL, number 980:Anne Shaw tells Peter Plisner, "West Midlands Metro metamorphosis", page 32:
"It sort of transforms that location," says Shaw.
Pip Dunn, "'196s' giving commuters a smoother ride", page 55:
Messy trains are horrible, but you can sort of understand passengers leaving their sandwich wrappers and paper cups if there is nowhere to dispose of them.
Synonyms
Translations
in a way etc.
- Finnish: jollain tapaa, jotenkuten (fi), tavallaan (fi)
- French: en quelque sorte (fr), partiellement (fr), plus ou moins (fr)
- Galician: algo así
- German: irgendwie (de)
- Hebrew: בְּעֵרֶךְ (be'érech)
- Irish: cineál
- Polish: jakiś (pl)
- Portuguese: mais ou menos (pt), aproximadamente (pt), de certa forma
- Russian: не́что вро́де (néčto vróde), так сказа́ть (ru) (tak skazátʹ), не совсем (ne sovsem)
- Scottish Gaelic: nàdar de
- Serbo-Croatian: nekako (sh), na neki način
- Slovene: na nek način
- Spanish: algo así, en cierto sentido, de alguna forma, de cierta manera, más o menos (es)
- Swedish: typ (sv)
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See also
Anagrams