1
: a sudden issuing of troops from a defensive position against the enemy
2
: one mission or attack by a single plane
3
b
: excursion, expedition
diving sorties
sortie
intransitive verb
sortied; sortieing
Examples of sortie in a Sentence
an occasional sortie to the city to rummage through some of its numerous used-book stores
Recent Examples on the Web
The newspaper stated that the British Ministry of Defence had confirmed that the Royal Air Force sorties were not an exercise.
—
John Feng
robert Birsel, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 Aug. 2025
The aircraft traveled 86,000 nautical miles, with the sailors completing 23,000 hours of safe flight operations and about 11,000 sorties, Bauernschmidt told reporters from The Center Square and other media.
—Jamie Parsons, The Washington Examiner, 15 Aug. 2025
The July 24-28 clashes, the worst fighting between the countries in more than a decade, involved exchanges of artillery fire and jet fighter sorties that killed at least 43 and left over 300,000 people displaced on both sides.
—Reuters, NBC news, 10 Aug. 2025
Future sorties will push the sensor suite’s limits, gathering imagery to refine tracking algorithms and prove out data-delivery timelines.
—Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 8 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sortie
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
John Feng
robert Birsel, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 Aug. 2025
The aircraft traveled 86,000 nautical miles, with the sailors completing 23,000 hours of safe flight operations and about 11,000 sorties, Bauernschmidt told reporters from The Center Square and other media.
—Jamie Parsons, The Washington Examiner, 15 Aug. 2025
The July 24-28 clashes, the worst fighting between the countries in more than a decade, involved exchanges of artillery fire and jet fighter sorties that killed at least 43 and left over 300,000 people displaced on both sides.
—Reuters, NBC news, 10 Aug. 2025
Future sorties will push the sensor suite’s limits, gathering imagery to refine tracking algorithms and prove out data-delivery timelines.
—Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 8 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sortie
Cite this Entry
“Sortie.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sortie. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share