Which of the following words will appear first in a dictionary?

2013

Which of the following words will appear first in a dictionary?

  1. A.

    PRISM

  2. B.

    PRISON

  3. C.

    PREY

  4. D.

    PRAY

Attempted by 6 students.

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D

To find which word comes first in a dictionary, compare the words letter by letter from the left.

All four words start with the same two letters "PR". So compare the third letter: PRAY → A, PREY → E, PRISM → I, PRISON → I.

In alphabetical order A comes before E, which comes before I. Therefore the dictionary order is: PRAY, PREY, PRISM, PRISON (PRISM before PRISON because the fifth letter M comes before O).

Hence PRAY appears first in the dictionary.

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