alphabetize

English

Alternative forms

alphabetise (mainly, British)

Etymology

From alphabet(ical) +‎ -ize.

Verb

alphabetize (third-person singular simple present alphabetizes, present participle alphabetizing, simple past and past participle alphabetized)

(US, Canada) To arrange words or items in order of the first (and then subsequent) letters as they occur in the alphabet.
It was almost impossible to locate specific books in the library until we had alphabetized them by the authors' surnames.

Derived terms

misalphabetized
unalphabetized

Translations

to arrange alphabetically

Catalan: alfabetitzar (ca)
Finnish: aakkostaa (fi)
Galician: alfabetizar

Portuguese: ordenar alfabeticamente, pôr em ordem alfabética
Spanish: alfabetizar (es), poner en orden alfabético
Swedish: alfabetisera (sv)