ABC Order, Alphabetical Order Worksheets, Task Cards, Dictionary ... - Free Printable

Let’s solve this step by step.

We have two parts to this worksheet:

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Part 1: Put the words in ABC order

Here are the 12 words we need to sort alphabetically:

1. podium
2. pointer
3. poem
4. plentiful
5. fluent
6. flower
7. fluoride
8. feather
9. greetings
10. gristle
11. greet
12. grief

First, let’s group them by their first letter:

- f: fluent, flower, fluoride, feather → 4 words
- g: greetings, gristle, greet, grief → 4 words
- p: podium, pointer, poem, plentiful → 4 words

Now, sort each group:

✔ “f” words:
Look at the second letter:
- feather (e)
- fluent (l)
- flower (l) → wait, both “fluent” and “flower” start with “fl”, so look at third letter:
- fluent → u
- flower → o → o comes before u → so flower before fluent? Wait — no! Let’s check carefully:

Actually, let’s list all “f” words again:

- feather → f-e-a...
- fluent → f-l-u...
- flower → f-l-o...
- fluoride → f-l-u...

So:

Start with “feather” because “e” comes before “l”.

Then among “fluent”, “flower”, “fluoride” — they all start with “fl”.

Compare third letter:

- flower → o
- fluent → u
- fluoride → u

“o” comes before “u”, so “flower” is next.

Now between “fluent” and “fluoride” — both have “flu” as first three letters.

Fourth letter:

- fluent → e
- fluoride → o

“e” comes before “o”, so “fluent” before “fluoride”.

Wait — that’s not right! Let’s spell them out:

- fluent → f-l-u-e-n-t
- fluoride → f-l-u-o-r-i-d-e

After “flu”, compare fourth letter:

- fluent → e
- fluoride → o

Yes, “e” comes before “o”, so “fluent” comes before “fluoride”.

But hold on — actually, let’s double-check standard dictionary order.

Standard alphabetical order for these:

feather
flower
fluent
fluoride

Wait — let me verify:

Compare “flower” and “fluent”:

f-l-o-w-e-r vs f-l-u-e-n-t → third letter: o vs u → o comes first → so flower before fluent.

Then fluent vs fluoride:

f-l-u-e-n-t vs f-l-u-o-r-i-d-e → fourth letter: e vs o → e comes first → fluent before fluoride.

So correct order for “f” words:

1. feather
2. flower
3. fluent
4. fluoride

✔ “g” words:

greetings, gristle, greet, grief

All start with “gr” except... wait, all start with “g”, but let’s see:

- greet → g-r-e-e-t
- grief → g-r-i-e-f
- greetings → g-r-e-e-t-i-n-g-s
- gristle → g-r-i-s-t-l-e

Group by second letter — all have “r” as second letter.

Third letter:

- greet → e
- grief → i
- greetings → e
- gristle → i

So “greet” and “greetings” come before “grief” and “gristle” because “e” < “i”.

Now compare “greet” and “greetings”:

greet = g-r-e-e-t
greetings = g-r-e-e-t-i-n-g-s

They match up to “greet”, then “greetings” has more letters → so “greet” comes before “greetings”.

Now “grief” and “gristle”:

grief → g-r-i-e-f
gristle → g-r-i-s-t-l-e

Third letter same (“i”), fourth letter:

grief → e
gristle → s → e comes before s → so grief before gristle.

So full “g” order:

1. greet
2. greetings
3. grief
4. gristle

Wait — that doesn’t seem right. Let’s think again.

Actually, when comparing “greet” and “greetings”, since “greet” is shorter and matches the beginning of “greetings”, “greet” comes first.

Then “grief” and “gristle” — after “gri”, “grief” has “e”, “gristle” has “s” → e before s → grief before gristle.

But what about position relative to “greet/greetings”? Since “greet” starts with “gre”, and “grief” starts with “gri”, and “e” comes before “i”, so “greet” and “greetings” come BEFORE “grief” and “gristle”.

So yes:

greet
greetings
grief
gristle

BUT — wait! Is “greetings” really after “greet”? Yes, because it’s longer and shares the same prefix.

However, let’s confirm with actual dictionary order.

In real dictionaries:

greet
greetings
grief
gristle

Yes, that’s correct.

✔ “p” words:

podium, pointer, poem, plentiful

All start with “p”.

Second letter:

- poem → o
- plentiful → l
- podium → o
- pointer → o

“plentiful” has “l” as second letter → l comes before o → so “plentiful” is first.

Now the rest: poem, podium, pointer — all have “po” as first two letters.

Third letter:

- poem → e
- podium → d
- pointer → i

Order by third letter: d, e, i → so:

podium (d)
poem (e)
pointer (i)

So full “p” order:

1. plentiful
2. podium
3. poem
4. pointer

Now, combine all groups in alphabetical order by first letter:

“f” comes before “g”, which comes before “p”.

So overall order:

From “f”:
1. feather
2. flower
3. fluent
4. fluoride

From “g”:
5. greet
6. greetings
7. grief
8. gristle

From “p”:
9. plentiful
10. podium
11. poem
12. pointer

Wait — let’s write them in sequence:

Final sorted list:

1. feather
2. flower
3. fluent
4. fluoride
5. greet
6. greetings
7. grief
8. gristle
9. plentiful
10. podium
11. poem
12. pointer

Double-checking:

- feather (f-e)
- flower (f-l-o)
- fluent (f-l-u-e)
- fluoride (f-l-u-o) → yes, e before o
- greet (g-r-e)
- greetings (g-r-e-e-t...) → comes after greet
- grief (g-r-i) → after greet/greetings because i > e
- gristle (g-r-i-s) → after grief because s > e
- plentiful (p-l) → l before o
- podium (p-o-d)
- poem (p-o-e) → d before e
- pointer (p-o-i) → e before i

Perfect.

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Part 2: Guide words “nap - native” — circle words that would fall on the same page

Guide words mean: any word that comes alphabetically BETWEEN “nap” and “native” (including “nap” and “native” themselves, depending on convention — usually inclusive).

List of words to check:

nasal
nail
nature
napkins
nasty
nation
name
nerve
narrow
naughty

We need to find which of these come between “nap” and “native” in dictionary order.

First, understand the range:

Start: nap
End: native

Any word that is >= “nap” and <= “native” should be circled.

Let’s compare each word:

1. nasal → n-a-s-a-l
Compare to “nap” → n-a-p
First two letters same: “na”
Third letter: s vs p → s > p → so “nasal” comes AFTER “nap”
Now compare to “native” → n-a-t-i-v-e
“nasal” vs “native”: third letter s vs t → s < t → so “nasal” comes BEFORE “native”
→ So “nasal” is BETWEEN → CIRCLE

2. nail → n-a-i-l
Compare to “nap”: third letter i vs p → i < p → so “nail” comes BEFORE “nap” → NOT in range → SKIP

3. nature → n-a-t-u-r-e
Compare to “nap”: third letter t > p → after “nap”
Compare to “native”: n-a-t-u vs n-a-t-i → fourth letter u vs i → u > i → so “nature” comes AFTER “native” → NOT in range → SKIP

Wait — let’s do it properly.

“native” = n-a-t-i-v-e
“nature” = n-a-t-u-r-e

First three letters same: “nat”

Fourth letter: “native” has “i”, “nature” has “u” → i comes before u → so “native” comes before “nature” → so “nature” is AFTER “native” → not included.

4. napkins → n-a-p-k-i-n-s
Compare to “nap”: “nap” is prefix of “napkins” → so “napkins” comes after “nap”
Compare to “native”: “napkins” vs “native” → third letter p vs t → p < t → so “napkins” comes before “native” → YES → CIRCLE

5. nasty → n-a-s-t-y
Compare to “nap”: third letter s > p → after “nap”
Compare to “native”: third letter s vs t → s < t → before “native” → YES → CIRCLE

6. nation → n-a-t-i-o-n
Compare to “nap”: third letter t > p → after “nap”
Compare to “native”: n-a-t-i-o-n vs n-a-t-i-v-e → first four letters same: “nati”
Fifth letter: o vs v → o < v → so “nation” comes before “native” → YES → CIRCLE

7. name → n-a-m-e
Compare to “nap”: third letter m vs p → m < p → so “name” comes BEFORE “nap” → NOT in range → SKIP

8. nerve → n-e-r-v-e
First letter n, second letter e vs a → e > a? No — a comes before e → so “nerve” starts with “ne”, while “nap” starts with “na” → “na” comes before “ne” → so “nerve” is AFTER “native”? Let’s see.

Actually, “nap” = n-a-p
“nerve” = n-e-r → second letter e > a → so “nerve” comes after “nap”
But compared to “native” = n-a-t → second letter a vs e → a < e → so “native” comes before “nerve” → so “nerve” is AFTER “native” → NOT in range → SKIP

9. narrow → n-a-r-r-o-w
Compare to “nap”: third letter r vs p → r > p → after “nap”
Compare to “native”: third letter r vs t → r < t → before “native” → YES → CIRCLE

10. naughty → n-a-u-g-h-t-y
Compare to “nap”: third letter u > p → after “nap”
Compare to “native”: third letter u vs t → u > t → so “naughty” comes AFTER “native” → NOT in range → SKIP

So words to circle:

- nasal
- napkins
- nasty
- nation
- narrow

Let’s list them again to confirm:

Between “nap” and “native”:

- napkins (starts with “nap”, so definitely after “nap”, and “napk...” < “nat...” because p < t)
- nasal (“nas...” — s is between p and t? p=16, s=19, t=20 → yes, s < t → so before “native”)
- nasty (“nas...” same as above)
- nation (“nati...” — “nati” < “nativ” because after “nati”, “nation” has ‘o’, “native” has ‘v’ — o < v → so before)
- narrow (“nar...” — r is between p and t? p=16, r=18, t=20 → yes)

What about “name”? n-a-m-e → m=13, p=16 → m < p → before “nap” → exclude.

“nail” → i=9 < p=16 → before → exclude.

“nature” → u=21 > t=20 → after “native” → exclude.

“nerve” → e=5 > a=1? Second letter: “na” vs “ne” → a=1, e=5 → so “ne” > “na” → but “native” is “na...”, so “nerve” is after “native” → exclude.

“naughty” → u=21 > t=20 → after → exclude.

So final circled words: nasal, napkins, nasty, nation, narrow.

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Final Answer:

Part 1: Alphabetical Order

1. feather
2. flower
3. fluent
4. fluoride
5. greet
6. greetings
7. grief
8. gristle
9. plentiful
10. podium
11. poem
12. pointer

Part 2: Words between "nap" and "native"

Circle:
nasal
napkins
nasty
nation
narrow