The phrase "a sort of deity" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe someone or something that is regarded as having divine qualities or characteristics, but not necessarily a traditional deity.
Example: "In the ancient culture, the king was seen as a sort of deity, revered by his people for his wisdom and strength."
Alternatives: "a kind of god" or "a type of divine being".
At the time of the poker incident, Wittgenstein was regarded as a sort of deity, at least in Cambridge.
"Suddenly, he started using a stylist, who asked questions like 'What might look better on you than a weird bowl haircut?' " In a version of the classic revenge-of-the-nerd fantasy, MacFarlane has remade himself into a sort of deity for the young male demographic, for whom his stew of scatological jokes and absurdism is the perfect backdrop for bong hits and surfing the Web.
At the Reason Rally, crowds cheered as he declared that the Sept. 11 attacks played a critical role in blasting away his lingering belief in any sort of deity.
All who believe in any sort of deity, without exception, portray him as an inconceivably immense being, whose intellect and capacities are as infinitely far above those of humans as humans are above amoebas.
Mourdock almost suggest that he is a God with narrow powers, a sort of fertility deity conjured up by the circumstances of conception, who either does or doesn't make it happen.
But without any sort of deity, without anything outside of the laws of physics, how can there be good?
"Television!" he cries, invoking it as a sort of multiheaded deity.
That could be guessed from Mr. Combs's resume: he is a 2002 graduate of Columbia Business School (Mr. Buffett's alma mater), where he participated in the value investing program (where Mr. Buffett, the greatest value investor of all, looms as a sort of living deity).
Headed by "Pistol" Pete Rollock, who became a sort of twisted deity in American crime lore, SMM rose off the back of an epidemic of crack, chaos and killing to export its brand of gangster culture from the Bronx's Soundview housing project across state lines.
And a very-there bronze sculpture by Nathan Mabry of a sort of pre-Columbian deity is another.
