Meanings
- human sciencesA mechanism whereby uncountable nouns are made countable and abstract.
The conceivability of this machine, that we might call the "Universal Sorter", indicates that in principle any "mass noun" can be used as a count noun. Of course, it is true that a "mass noun" like 'wine' undergoes a shift in meaning when used as a count noun...
1981, Hendrik Bunt, The formal semantics of mass terms, Amsterdam (dissertation), →OCLC, page 11
Origin
Compound of universal + sorter; first used in print in or around 1981 by Hendrik Bunt (see quote below) modeled on universal grinder.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
universal sorter. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/universal%20sorter
“universal sorter.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/universal%20sorter. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “universal sorter,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/universal%20sorter.
Source: universal sorter on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.