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Glite Dictionary
🔤 To sort by letters 📝 To create an alphabet
to alphabetize

to alphabetize

14 3.2
Arrange words or items in the order of the alphabet
  • verb
  • /ˈæl.fə.bəˌtaɪz/
  • US
translation icon : ordenar alfabéticamente
  • The pantry, or what his chef called the garde-manger, was alphabetized.
  • an alphabetized list

I'm like, you all are not smart enough to alphabetize library books.

Examples

  • The teacher asked her students to alphabetize the words in their spelling lists.

  • In the references cited, Ethiopian authors and interview participants are alphabetized by their first names.

    Academic text (2009)

  • You really should alphabetize your albums, Harry.

    Night and the City (1992)

  • These were alphabetized just last year.

    Positive I.D. (1986)

  • The pieces were alphabetized by composer.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Every other graduate was selected from an alphabetized list containing each graduate's last name.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Got them right here, all categorized and alphabetized.

    The Ideal Husband (2011)

  • Hundreds of them, alphabetized on white laminated shelves she'd assembled herself.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • The cans and cereal aren't alphabetized, but at least they are organized and visible.

    Blog text (6)

  • "He's a hammerhead," Thrip said, looking for the phone directory on the alphabetized bookshelf.

    Fiction book (1995)

Antonyms

to scatter
110 2.7

To make people or animals move quickly in different directions

to disarrange
1 6.4

To make something messy or not in the right order

Surface Forms

alphabetize infinitive
alphabetized past
alphabetized past participle
alphabetizing present participle
alphabetizes third person singular

Morphology

alphabetize = alphabet (transparent) = alphabet + ize

The verb is transparently formed from the noun 'alphabet' plus the productive verbalizing suffix '-ize' meaning 'to make or apply'.

Etymology

Alphabetize comes from alphabet (from the names of the first letters alpha and beta) and the ending -ize, which means 'to make'. So to alphabetize is to 'make' items follow the alphabet, putting them in A, B, C order.