Definition of SORTIE

sortie

Plural: sorties

Noun

  • a military action in which besieged troops burst forth from their position
  • (military) an operational flight by a single aircraft (as in a military operation)
  • An attack made by troops from a besieged position; a sally.
  • An operational flight carried out by a single military aircraft.
  • An act of venturing out to do a task, etc.
  • An act of trying to enter a new field of activity.
  • An attacking move.
  • An operational flight carried out by a spacecraft involving a return to Earth.
  • Synonym of sally port (“an entry to or opening into a fortification to enable a sally”).
  • A series of aerial photographs taken during the flight of an aircraft; (by extension) a photography session.

Verb

  • To carry out a sortie; to sally.
  • -TIED, -TIEING, -TIES to attack suddenly from a defensive position

Origin / Etymology

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.

Synonyms

sally, sally port

Scrabble Score: 6

sortie: valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
sortie: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
sortie: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 6

sortie is a valid Words With Friends word