sortie
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sortie¹
- /ˈsɔːti/ UK
- /ˈsɔɹti/ US
- [-ɾi] US
Rhymes with -ɔːti
Where it comes from
PIE word
*upó
The noun is borrowed from French sortie (“act of exiting; exit, way out; (military) sally, sortie”), the feminine past participle of sortir (“to exit, go out”), from Old French sortir, from Latin sortīrī, the present active infinitive of sortior (“to cast or draw lots; to choose, select; to distribute, divide; to obtain, receive; to share”), from sors (“something used to determine chances, a lot; casting or drawing of lots; decision by lot; a share”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind, tie together; a thread”)), possibly influenced by surrēctus (“arisen, having been caused to arise; gotten up, having been gotten up”), the perfect passive participle of surgō (“to arise, get up, rise”), from subrigō (“to lift up; to straighten”), from sub- (prefix meaning ‘beneath, under’) + regō (“to direct, guide, steer; to govern, rule; to manage, oversee”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to right oneself, straighten; just; right”)).
The verb is derived from the noun.
noun sorties
- An attack made by troops from a besieged position; a sally. The events of these sieges show that a bold and vigorous sortie in force might carry destruction through every part of a besieger's approaches, where the guard is injudiciously disposed and ill commanded; but that if due precautions have been observed in forming the approaches and posting the defend
- An operational flight carried out by a single military aircraft. Their aircraft had no belly gunners and were at the mercy of Luftwaffe fighters that attacked from below. Whenever they lifted off on a mission, they departed with the knowledge that this sortie could easily be their last.
- An act of venturing out to do a task, etc. ‘I'm just not interested in the whole class crap that seems to needle you and all the tax-payers,’ the teenager tells some ‘pre-historic monster’ of an adult, with a ‘cool’ snobbishness which MacInnes's companion on many of his Notting Hill sorties, the late Professor Richard Wollheim, compared to t
- An act of trying to enter a new field of activity.
- An attacking move. Kai Johansen made a sortie down the right and, running out of ideas, tried a shot from more than 20 yards.
- An operational flight carried out by a spacecraft involving a return to Earth.
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Synonym of sally port (“an entry to or opening into a fortification to enable a sally”).
[I]t was all encompassed by the palisades and breastworks, to which were but three sorties, whence the defenders might sally, or through which at need the vanguard might secure a retreat.
Similar: sally port
- A series of aerial photographs taken during the flight of an aircraft; (by extension) a photography session.
verb sorties · sortieing · sortied
- To carry out a sortie; to sally. Five Italian warships identified as two cruisers and three destroyers, sortied down the Albanian coast during the morning of 4 March and commenced shelling the coastal road near Himara and Port Palermo, under cover of a strong fighter escort of G.50bis and CR 42s from the 24º Gruppo CT.
Sortie²
proper noun Sorties
- A surname.
Translations
Every language
noun operational flight carried out by a single military aircraft
| 日本語 | 出撃 shutsugeki |
|---|---|
| Français | sortie |
| Deutsch | Ausflug, Kampfeinsatz, Mission |
| Italiano | sortita |
| Русский | боевой вы́лет bojevoj |
| Tiếng Việt | phi vụ |
noun sally port
| Русский | воро́та для вы́лазок voróta dlja výlazok |
|---|
verb to carry out a sortie — see also sally
| 日本語 | 出撃する shutsugeki suru |
|---|---|
| Deutsch | einen Ausfall wagen |
| Italiano | sortìre |
Talk about this word "sortie." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/sortie. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. sortie. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/sortie "sortie." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/sortie.Cite this
@misc{sortie_2026,
title = {sortie},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/sortie},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
