Dictionary Word Arrangement Explained

This question requires arranging a list of English words based on their alphabetical order, as they would appear in a standard English dictionary. This process is also known as lexicographical order.

Understanding Dictionary Order

To determine the correct dictionary order, we compare the words letter by letter from the beginning. The word that has an earlier letter in the alphabet at the first point of difference comes first. If one word is a prefix of another (e.g., 'apple' and 'apples'), the shorter word comes first.

Step-by-Step Word Comparison

Let's examine the given words:

• 1. REPRESSIVE
• 2. REPROACH
• 3. REPRIMAND
• 4. REPRISAL
• 5. REPRIEVE

Comparing the First Four Letters

All the words begin with the letters "REP". We need to look at the fourth letter to start differentiating them:

• REPRESSIVE
• REPROACH
• REPRIMAND
• REPRISAL
• REPRIEVE

The fourth letters are E, O, I, I, I. Arranging these letters alphabetically gives us: E, I, I, I, O.

Determining the First and Last Words

• The word starting with "REPRE..." (REPRESSIVE) will come first because 'E' comes before 'I' and 'O'. So, 1. REPRESSIVE is the first word.
• The word starting with "REPRO..." (REPROACH) will come last because 'O' comes after 'E' and 'I'. So, 2. REPROACH is the last word.

Ordering the "REPRI" Words

Now we need to order the three words that start with "REPRI":

• 3. REPRIMAND
• 4. REPRISAL
• 5. REPRIEVE

We compare the fifth letter of these words: M, S, E. Arranging these alphabetically gives us: E, M, S.

• The word with 'E' as the fifth letter (REPRIEVE) comes next. So, 5. REPRIEVE is the second word in the overall list.
• The word with 'M' as the fifth letter (REPRIMAND) comes after that. So, 3. REPRIMAND is the third word.
• The word with 'S' as the fifth letter (REPRISAL) comes after that. So, 4. REPRISAL is the fourth word.

Final Dictionary Order

Combining these steps, the complete dictionary order of the words is:

1. REPRESSIVE (starts with REPRE...)
2. REPRIEVE (starts with REPRIE...)
3. REPRIMAND (starts with REPRIM...)
4. REPRISAL (starts with REPRIS...)
5. REPROACH (starts with REPRO...)

Therefore, the correct sequence representing this order is 1, 5, 3, 4, 2.