 A large number of thoughtful philosophers have believed that the category of sortal was philosophically significant and this is a strong indication that there is something important they are attempting to delineate and analyze. In the last two decades cognitive psychologists and formal ontologists have applied the term in their research. However, our dissection of the definitions and discussions show that there are numerous distinctions in question and while these distinctions have significant overlap, they are not identical. It remains to be seen whether the sortal/non-sortal distinction marks one very important difference, or numerous less important distinctions related in complex ways.