An arbitrarily long series of interlinked conditional statements that can be replaced by a new conditional constructed from the antecedent of the first and the consequent of the last premise.
If A, then B.
If B, then C.
…
If M, then N.
Therefore, If A, then N.
For example:
If something is a square, then it is a rectangle.
If something is a rectangle, then it is a polygon.
If something is a polygon, then it can be drawn in one stroke.
Therefore, If something is a square, it can be drawn in one stroke.
The name “sorites” comes from σωρός [sorós], the Ancient Greek word for a “pile” or “heap”. It is used as a shorter form for the latinized term “soriticus syllogismus” and should not be confused with the Sorites fallacy.