Understanding Dictionary Order for English Words

This solution explains how to determine the correct alphabetical order of the given English words as they would appear in a dictionary. We need to compare the words letter by letter, following standard lexicographical rules.

List of Words Provided

Step-by-Step Word Sorting Process

To find the correct dictionary order, we compare the words character by character from left to right.

1. Initial Comparison: All the given words start with the common prefix "Dis". This means we must examine the subsequent letters to establish the order.
2. Comparing the 4th Letter: The letters immediately following "Dis" are:
   • Discover: 'c'
   • Disperse: 'p'
   • Disjointed: 'j'
   • Discard: 'c'
   • Disposable: 'p'
   • Discriminate: 'c'
   Alphabetically, 'c' comes before 'j', which comes before 'p'. This categorizes the words into three groups: those starting with "Disc", followed by "Disj", and finally "Disp".
3. Ordering the "Disc" Group: We need to sort the words Discover, Discard, and Discriminate. We look at their 5th letters:
   • Discard: 'a'
   • Discover: 'o'
   • Discriminate: 'r'
   Sorting these alphabetically ('a', 'o', 'r') gives us the order: Discard, then Discover, and finally Discriminate.
4. Ordering the "Disj" Group: There is only one word in this category:
   • Disjointed
   This word naturally follows the "Disc" group.
5. Ordering the "Disp" Group: We need to sort the words Disperse and Disposable. We look at their 5th letters:
   • Disperse: 'e'
   • Disposable: 'o'
   Sorting these alphabetically ('e', 'o') gives us the order: Disperse, then Disposable.
6. Assembling the Final Sequence: By combining the sorted groups in the established order ('Disc', 'Disj', 'Disp'), we get the complete alphabetical arrangement of the words:
   1. Discard
   2. Discover
   3. Discriminate
   4. Disjointed
   5. Disperse
   6. Disposable
7. Converting to Numerical Order: Finally, we replace the words with their original numbers:
   • Discard = 4
   • Discover = 1
   • Discriminate = 6
   • Disjointed = 3
   • Disperse = 2
   • Disposable = 5
   This results in the final numerical sequence: 4, 1, 6, 3, 2, 5.