Relating to or tending to sort; having the nature or function of arranging things into groups.
From 'assort' plus '-ive' (having the nature of). This is a rare technical formation, primarily used in specialized botanical or zoological contexts.
You'll rarely see this word outside scientific papers, but when botanists talk about 'assortive processes' in plant reproduction, they're describing how pollen gets distributed to compatible plants in surprisingly organized ways.
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