sorta

Written form of a reduction of sort of.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɔɹtə/, [ˈsɔɹɾə]
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɔːtə/, [ˈsɔːtə]

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)tə

sorta (not comparable)

1. (informal) Contraction of sort of.

   The portraits on the wall aren't so useful, just sorta cool to have around

   • 1912, Caspar Whitney, Albert Britt, Outing: Sport, Adventure, Travel, Fiction, volume 60, page 680:

     'Webb,' he says sorta sorrowful like, 'it looks like a howlin' shame to have a bang-up American girl hooked up to a money-grubbin' member of the British nobility. […] '

   • 1993 July, “Sort of a Hero”, in Boys' Life, page 34:

     In fact the whole thing sorta backfired on old Chuck — and on me and Pete too. Instead of laughing about it, most people thought it was pretty crummy.

• kinda,kinda sorta, sorta kinda

sorta (plural sortsa)

1. (colloquial) Sort of.

   There's gotta be some sorta explanation.

   • 2001, Lawrence A. Wenzel, The Sandcastle at High Tide, page 97:

     He glanced at her then back at me. "What sorta research?"
     "Well, war correspondent might not be too far off," I said.

• Astor, Astro, Roats, Sarot, Troas, artos, astro, astro-, ratos, roast, rotas, taros, tarso-

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɔr̥ta/
• Rhymes: -ɔr̥ta

sorta f (genitive singular sortu, nominative plural sortur)

1. black dye

• sortulyng (“common bearberry, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi”)

• sorti (“darkness; dark weather”)
• sortna (“to darken”)
• svartur (“black”)

Borrowed from French sorte, from Latin sortem.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɔr.ta/[1]
• Rhymes: -ɔrta
• Hyphenation: sòr‧ta

sorta f (plural sorte)

1. sort, type, kind

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɔr.ta/[1]
• Rhymes: -ɔrta
• Hyphenation: sòr‧ta

sorta

1. inflection of sortire:
   1. first/second/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• IPA^(key): /ˈsor.ta/, /ˈsɔr.ta/[1]
• Rhymes: -orta, -ɔrta
• Hyphenation: sór‧ta, sòr‧ta

sorta f sg

1. feminine singular of sorto

• -astro, Tarso, astro, astro-, rosta, sarto, staro, starò, tarso

Borrowed from German sortieren.

a sorta (third-person singular present sortează, past participle sortat) 1st conj.

1. to sort

Borrowed from German Sorte and/or Italian sorta; all eventually from Latin sors. See English sort for more.

sȏrta f (Cyrillic spelling со̑рта)

1. sort, kind

From Proto-Finnic *sortadak.

sorta

1. to bring down, to knock down
2. to cut down, to chop down, to fell
3. to drop (by accident)

• Zajceva, N. G., Mullonen, M. I. (2007) “валить, ронять, сбивать, уронить”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary]‎, Petrozavodsk: Periodika