We often sort letters and words in alphabetical order. This means to order them as they appear in the alphabet. When sorting words in to alphabetical order, we look at the first letter of the word.

It seems possible, based on an extract from the Pinakes that survives from the third century, that the scrolls in each genre were shelved in first-letter alphabetical order: authors whose names ...

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet. But how did they get there, and why do they look the way they do? Michael Rosen looks for answers in his new book Alphabetical.