Alphabetical Order, Letter by Letter

Five words can begin with the same letter, yet only one belongs first. The secret is not what the words mean. It is how far you must travel through each word before the letters finally differ. Sometimes the deciding letter hides near the end.

Alphabetical order follows the alphabet from A to Z. Compare the first letter of every word. The letter appearing earliest in the alphabet takes the earliest place. A is position ONE, not zero; B is two, and C is three. If the first letters match, keep them level and move to the second letters. If those match too, move to the third. Continue one column at a time. At the first difference, the earlier letter decides the order. Think of a word ending as an empty space that comes before another letter. So, if car and carpet are compared, car comes first: all three letters match, then car stops while carpet continues.

Let's work through an example. Put these five words into alphabetical order: cricket, crown, crab, cream, crisp. The meanings do not matter; use only the letters. Every word starts with C, so the first column cannot decide. Every second letter is R, so move again. Now compare the third letters: cricket has I, crown has O, crab has A, cream has E, and crisp has I. Order those third letters: A, E, I, I, O. That places crab first, then cream. Cricket and crisp are still tied at C, R, I, so inspect their fourth letters. Cricket has C; crisp has S. C comes before S, so cricket comes before crisp. Crown has O in the third position, so it comes last. The complete answer is: crab, cream, cricket, crisp, crown. Check it by reading down each letter column until every neighbouring pair is settled.

Remember: compare from the left, move right only through ties, and let the first different letter decide. You can sort even the trickiest word list with calm, careful checks.