Arranging Words in Dictionary Order

To arrange words in the sequence in which they appear in a dictionary, we compare them letter by letter from left to right. The word with the letter that comes earlier in the alphabet at the first point of difference comes first.

Let's look at the given words and their corresponding numbers:

1. Peanut
2. Peaceful
3. Personal
4. Photograph
5. Picture

We will compare these words letter by letter.

Step-by-Step Dictionary Arrangement

Comparing the first letter: All words start with 'P'. This doesn't help us determine the order yet.

Comparing the second letter: Let's look at the second letter of each word:

• Peanut: Pe
• Peaceful: Pe
• Personal: Pe
• Photograph: Ph
• Picture: Pi

The second letters are 'e', 'e', 'e', 'h', 'i'. In the alphabet, 'e' comes before 'h', and 'h' comes before 'i'. So, the words starting with 'Pe' will come first, followed by 'Ph', and then 'Pi'.

We need to sort the 'Pe' words first: Peanut (1), Peaceful (2), Personal (3).

Comparing the third letter for 'Pe' words:

• Peanut: Pea
• Peaceful: Pea
• Personal: Per

The third letters are 'a', 'a', 'r'. 'a' comes before 'r'. So, Peanut (1) and Peaceful (2) will come before Personal (3). We now need to compare Peanut and Peaceful to see which comes first.

Comparing the fourth letter for 'Pea' words (Peanut and Peaceful):

• Peanut: Pean
• Peaceful: Peac

The fourth letters are 'n' and 'c'. In the alphabet, 'c' comes before 'n'. Therefore, Peaceful (2) comes before Peanut (1).

So, within the 'Pe' group, the order is Peaceful (2), then Peanut (1), and then Personal (3) (because its third letter 'r' comes after 'a'). The sequence for the 'Pe' words is 2, 1, 3.

Now let's place the remaining words, Photograph (4) starting with 'Ph', and Picture (5) starting with 'Pi'. Based on the second letter comparison ('e' < 'h' < 'i'), the order of the groups is 'Pe', 'Ph', 'Pi'.

Combining the sorted groups:

1. Words starting with 'Pe': Peaceful (2), Peanut (1), Personal (3)
2. Word starting with 'Ph': Photograph (4)
3. Word starting with 'Pi': Picture (5)

The complete dictionary order sequence of the words is:

1. Peaceful (2)
2. Peanut (1)
3. Personal (3)
4. Photograph (4)
5. Picture (5)

The corresponding sequence of numbers is 2, 1, 3, 4, 5.

Let's check the options provided against this sequence.

The sequence 21345 matches the order we determined.

Revision Table: Dictionary Ordering Steps

Comparing letters from left to right: P is common. Second letters are e, e, e, h, i. 'e' comes first, then 'h', then 'i'. So, words 1, 2, 3 come before 4 and 5. Within 1, 2, 3 (Pe-): Third letters are a, a, r. 'a' comes before 'r'. So 1 and 2 come before 3. Comparing 1 and 2 (Pea-): Fourth letters are n, c. 'c' comes before 'n'. So 2 (Peaceful) comes before 1 (Peanut). Then comes 3 (Personal). Order of Pe- words: 2, 1, 3. Next is 4 (Photograph) (Ph-). Last is 5 (Picture) (Pi-). The final sequence is 2, 1, 3, 4, 5.

Additional Information: Alphabetical Sorting

Alphabetical sorting, also known as dictionary order, is a fundamental concept used for arranging text strings. It follows these rules:

• Comparison starts from the first character of the strings.
• If the first characters are different, the string with the character that appears earlier in the alphabet comes first.
• If the first characters are the same, the comparison moves to the second character, and so on.
• This process continues until a difference is found or one string runs out of characters.
• If one string runs out of characters while the other still has characters (and all preceding characters were the same), the shorter string comes first. For example, "cat" comes before "catalogue".
• Case sensitivity (upper vs. lower case) can affect sorting, depending on the sorting rules being applied (often lowercase letters are treated the same as or after uppercase letters, e.g., a < b, A < B, a < A or A < a). In this question, all words start with an uppercase 'P' and continue with lowercase letters, so case sensitivity isn't a primary concern after the first letter.

Mastering dictionary order is important for vocabulary building, using reference books, and various logical reasoning tests.