alphabetize

English

Alternative forms

alphabetise (mainly British)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Semitic *ʔalp-

Phoenician 𐤀𐤋𐤐 (ʾlp)bor.

Ancient Greek ἄλφα (álpha)

Proto-Semitic *bayt-

Phoenician 𐤁𐤕 (bt)bor.

Ancient Greek βῆτᾰ (bêtă)

Proto-Indo-European *-os

Proto-Hellenic *-os

Ancient Greek -ος (-os)

Ancient Greek ἀλφάβητος (alphábētos)

Byzantine Greek ἀλφάβητον (alphábēton)der.

Classical Latin alphabētumbor.

Middle English alphabete

English alphabet(ical)

Proto-Indo-European *-id-

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti

Proto-Hellenic *-íďďō

Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor.

Late Latin -izōder.

Middle French -iserbor.

Middle English -isen

English -ize

English alphabetize

From alphabet(ical) + -ize.

Pronunciation

Audio (Southern England): (file)

Verb

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

(US, Canada, transitive) 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

Related terms

Translations

to arrange alphabetically

Catalan: alfabetitzar (ca)
Faroese: seta í stavrað, stavraða
Finnish: aakkostaa (fi)
Galician: alfabetizar, ordenar alfabeticamente
German: alphabetisieren (de), alphabetisch sortieren
Greek: αλφαβητίζω (el) (alfavitízo)
Hungarian: betűrendbe/ábécérendbe/ábécésorrendbe rak/tesz/rendez/sorol/szed
Interlingua: alphabetisar
Italian: alfabetizzare (it)
Polish: alfabetyzować impf, zalfabetyzować pf
Portuguese: alfabetar (pt), ordenar alfabeticamente, pôr em ordem alfabética, colocar em ordem alfabética
Spanish: alfabetizar (es), ordenar alfabeticamente, poner en orden alfabético
Swedish: alfabetisera (sv)
Ukrainian: абеткува́ти (uk) impf (abetkuváty)
Welsh: rhoi yn nhrefn yr wyddor