Understanding Dictionary Order for Word Arrangement

Arranging words in dictionary order, also known as alphabetical order, involves comparing the words character by character from left to right. The word that comes first alphabetically at the earliest point of difference is placed earlier in the list.

The words given are:

• MABELA
• MABLE
• MABUSE
• MABEPEARL

Let's compare these words character by character to determine their order in a dictionary.

Step-by-Step Comparison for Dictionary Arrangement

We compare the words character by character:

• Characters 1, 2, 3, 4: All words start with "MABE". There is no difference up to the fourth character.
• Character 5:
  • MABLE: 'L'
  • MABELA: 'L'
  • MABUSE: 'U'
  • MABEPEARL: 'P'
  Comparing 'L', 'L', 'U', and 'P', the alphabetical order of these characters is 'L', 'P', 'U'. This means words with 'L' at the fifth position will come before the word with 'P', which will come before the word with 'U'.

Now we need to order the words starting with "MABEL" (MABLE and MABELA) and then place MABEPEARL and MABUSE based on their fifth character.

Ordering Words Starting with "MABEL"

Let's compare MABLE and MABELA:

• MABLE: M A B L E
• MABELA: M A B L E L A

Both words are identical up to "MABLE". When one word is a prefix of another (MABLE is a prefix of MABELA), the shorter word comes first in dictionary order.

So, the order for these two is: MABLE, MABELA.

Combining the Order Based on Fifth Character

Based on the fifth character comparison ('L', 'P', 'U') and the ordering of the 'L' words (MABLE, MABELA):

1. Words starting with 'L': MABLE, MABELA
2. Word starting with 'P': MABEPEARL
3. Word starting with 'U': MABUSE

Thus, the dictionary order of the four words is:

1. MABLE
2. MABELA
3. MABEPEARL
4. MABUSE

The last word in this dictionary arrangement is MABUSE.

Comparing the fifth characters: L, L, U, P. Alphabetical order is L, P, U. Within the 'L' group, MABLE comes before MABELA because it is shorter.

Final sorted order: MABLE, MABELA, MABEPEARL, MABUSE.

The last word in the dictionary arrangement is MABUSE.

Revision Table: Key Concepts in Word Order

Additional Information: Applying Dictionary Order Rules

Dictionary order is a fundamental concept used not only in dictionaries but also in sorting data in databases, arranging files in a file system, and organizing lists alphabetically. The rules are consistently applied:

• Start comparing from the very first character.
• Move to the next character only if the current characters are the same.
• When characters differ, the word with the character that appears earlier in the alphabet comes first.
• If all characters in one word match the beginning of another word, the shorter word is placed first. For example, "go" comes before "going".
• Case sensitivity matters in some contexts, but typically in simple dictionary arrangement problems, case is ignored or all words are assumed to be in the same case. In this question, all words are uppercase.

Practicing word arrangement helps improve logical reasoning and attention to detail, skills valuable in many types of assessments.