Meaning

noun a category of things distinguished by some common characteristic or quality

noun an approximate definition or example

noun a person of a particular character or nature

originFrom 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”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0