sorter

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a person whose job is to separate or arrange items into groups or classes

   A wool sorter separated each fleece by fiber length and quality.

2. 2
   noun

   a machine, program, or component that sorts items or data

   The optical sorter removed damaged beans from the production line.

Formed from sort + the agent suffix -er. Sort came through Old French sorte from Latin sors ('lot, share, kind'); sorter can therefore name either a person or a device that separates things by kind.

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