Alphabetize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To sort a collection of items, especially words, in accordance with the sequence established by the letters of the alphabet
2. The method of organizing content so that elements are positioned based on the standard, alphabetical arrangement of letters
3. To put a set of elements into the order defined by the alphabetical sequence of letters

Etymology: The alphabet itself is named after its first two letters. The Greek "alphabētos" was built from "alpha" and "bēta", which in turn came from the Phoenician names "ʾlp" (ox) and "bt" (house), so the name of the whole writing system is literally a pair of Semitic letter names glued together. Latin borrowed the Greek word as "alphabētum", and English took it up in the Middle Ages as "alphabete". The verb itself is much later and entirely English. It combines "alphabetical", the adjective formed from the noun, with the suffix "-ize", which descends from the Greek "-izein" and passed into English through Latin and Old French. Verbs ending in "-ize" were a productive English habit from the 1500s onward, so "alphabetize" is a plain, transparent coinage rather than a word with a dramatic backstory. Its meaning has never shifted: it still means to arrange items in the order of the letters, which is exactly what the alphabet was designed to make possible.

Synonyms: order, arrange