Assort, Sort, Classify and Pigeonhole mean to arrange in systematic order or according to some definite method of arrangement or distribution.
Assort (see also assorted under MISCELLANEOUS) implies division into groups of like things or of things intended for the same purpose or destination
- assort the jumbled contents of an attic
- assorted his bills and papers
When used in reference to homogeneous material, assort usually implies grading (as according to size, condition, or value).
- assort oranges for the market
- assort the books by author and subject
Often, additionally, it implies selection, either of what is to be eliminated or of what is to be chosen or preserved.
- her mind was busily assorting and grouping the faces before her
—Glasgow - the company indeed was perfectly assorted, since all the members belonged to the little inner group of people who, during the long New York season, disported themselves together daily and nightly
—Whartony
Sort usually equals assort but is often preferred to it when the latter would seem too literary or too technical.
- sort mail
- sort stockings
- sort yarns
Frequently, especially with out, sort implies culling or selection even more than arrangement.
- he sorted and re-sorted his cargo, always finding a more necessary article for which a less necessary had to be discarded
—Gather
Classify is more often used of things that fall into intellectual categories than of those which can be physically grouped. It usually implies a division into kinds or types and an arrangement for convenience in dealing with material that cannot be assembled or that is not before one.
- classify bodies of water
- classify poems as epic, lyric, and dramatic
- classify languages according to the way in which words are formed
Pigeonhole suggests an arrangement of small compartments in a writing desk or of boxes in a post office, each compartment being a receptacle for one group of letters or papers that are sorted or classified; it implies the ability to put each of a number of things in its right class or category.
- he pigeonholes the wild flowers he meets on a day’s walk by assigning each to its proper classification or by being able to give it its proper specific or generic name
- he pigeonholes every bit of information that comes to him by filing it away in his memory properly labeled and in its right place with relation to the rest of his knowledge