Dictionary Order: Deep Ties and Short Words

Today's big idea

Walk both words from the left, and a word that runs out while matching comes first.

Words share their start, so compare letter by letter until they first differ.

How it works

👀 What's going on?

Dictionary order lines words up the way they appear in a dictionary. You compare them letter by letter from the left, and the first place they differ decides which comes first. The hard part is when words agree for three or four letters before they differ, or when one word hides entirely inside a longer one.

💡 Here's the trick

Look at the three words above. BAG, BALL and BAT all share B and A, so you travel to the third letter and find G, L and T. That gives BAG, BALL, BAT. Now SUN and SUNNY. Every letter of SUN matches the start of SUNNY, so SUN runs out first, and the word that runs out first comes first.

🪄 How to do it

1.Walk both words together from the left, as the words above share B and A.
2.Stop at the first position where their letters differ and order by that letter.
3.If one word runs out with every letter still matching, that shorter word comes first.

✍️ Try it

Put PLAN, PLANT and PLANE in order. Then put READ, REAL and REAP in order.

PLAN runs out while still matching, so it leads. PLANE and PLANT then part at the fifth letter, E before T. That gives PLAN, PLANE, PLANT. The second list parts at the fourth letter, D then L then P, giving READ, REAL, REAP.

⚠️ Watch out

You might be thinking a longer word beats a shorter one because it has more letters. The opposite is true when the letters match. CAR comes before CARD, which comes before CARE.

🌟 Why this matters

Any sorted list you have ever scrolled works exactly like this, from a contacts list to a school register. Knowing the rule tells you where to stop scrolling.
Exam tip: Write the words one under the other and line the letters up in columns.

Watch me solve one

Quanta solves it

“Watch how I think through one of these — then you try.”

THE PROBLEM

“Which comes first: BEND, BE, BEE?”

1
Walk them together
All three share B, E, so keep going.
2
BE runs out
At the third position BE has no letter left, and everything matched so far.
3
The shorter one wins
A word that runs out while still matching comes first.
4
Answer ✓
BE

Now you try one — same steps, different story 👇

See it in action

⚡ Time to play!

Walk the letters together and stop where they part.

TIE BREAKER · ROUND 1 OF 3

PIG · PIN · PIT

Step 1 · where do they part?

Quick check

✅ VERIFICATION

Which comes FIRST in dictionary order: CARD, CAR, CARE?

⚡ Finish the activity above first to answer.

Keep going!

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Rewrite the sum with the real signs, then work it out.

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