Sort, type and kind

Sort, type and kind all generally mean the same thing. They are words we use to refer to a group of people or things which share the same characteristics. We use these words very often when we describe things and we often find them in dictionary definitions:

Jazz isn’t the sort of music I can listen to for very long.

A fastener is a type of metal button which fits together to join clothes, for example a coat might have fasteners.

There are many kinds of birds coming to feed in my garden at the moment.

We often use sort, type and kind as vague expressions to suggest that we think something is like something else. We do this either because we are not sure, or because we do not want to be too specific and too direct:

[joking about a cheap perfume that someone got as a present]

And it was, it was really cheap, I mean, it was a sort of a rose perfume and I think the whole box only cost him one pound fifty, or something. You could probably run your car off it.

We sometimes use some before sort, type and kind as vague expressions:

Karen has made some sort of cake for the party.

There was some type of hole in the road and we didn’t see it.

There’s some kind of strange smell in here.

We often use and that kind of thing or and that sort of thing to refer to categories. We usually give an example or two from the category we are referring to first, e.g. apples and that kind of thing, bookshops and libraries and that sort of thing:

A:
What are you doing tonight?

B:
Well, first, I’ve got lots of markingand that sort of thingto do.

A:
Are you taking anything to eat?

B:
Just a few snacks – crispsand that kind of thing.