Arrange the following words in the sequence in which they occur in the dictionary: 1. Soften 2. Sterilize 3. Stick 4. Sterile 5. Status

Introduction / Context:
This question asks you to arrange five English verbs or adjectives in dictionary order: Soften, Sterilize, Stick, Sterile and Status. Although they share some similar starting letters (such as “St…”), you must still carefully compare their spelling character by character to find the correct alphabetical sequence.

Given Data / Assumptions:
- Words: Soften (1), Sterilize (2), Stick (3), Sterile (4), Status (5).
- We assume standard English alphabetical rules.
- The answer choices list only possible index sequences, not the words themselves.

Concept / Approach:
First, look at the first two letters of each word. Words starting with “So” will come before those starting with “St”. Among the “St” words, the third and fourth letters will determine the finer order. Recall that within a given prefix, words with earlier letters come first; if all letters match up to a point, the shorter word appears before the longer one.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Group words by the second letter. Soften: S o… Sterilize: S t e… Stick: S t i… Sterile: S t e… Status: S t a… Step 2: Since o comes before t, Soften (1) must come first overall. Step 3: Among the remaining words starting with “St…”, compare the third letter: Status (Sta…), Sterilize (Ste…), Sterile (Ste…), Stick (Sti…). Alphabetically, a < e < i, so Status (5) comes before any “Ste…” word, which in turn come before Stick (3). Step 4: Now order Sterile vs Sterilize. Sterile: S T E R I L E; Sterilize: S T E R I L I Z E. They match up to “steril”. Then Sterile ends with “e”, while Sterilize continues with “ize”. Since the shorter word comes first when one is a prefix of the other, Sterile (4) is before Sterilize (2). Step 5: Put everything together: Soften (1), Status (5), Sterile (4), Sterilize (2), Stick (3) → 1 5 4 2 3.

Verification / Alternative check:
Simulate the dictionary: first “soften” under “so-”, then move to “sta-” (status), then “ste-” (sterile, sterilize in that order), and finally “sti-” (stick). The resulting pattern exactly matches the index sequence 15423.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
- 25134 starts with Status (5), ignoring that any “so-” word must precede “st-” words.
- 54213 incorrectly places Soften after several “st-” words and scrambles the internal ordering.
- 32154 has Stick (3) before Soften and other incorrectly arranged words, which contradicts basic alphabetical order.

Common Pitfalls:
A common error is to group all “St…” words together without considering that “Sta…”, “Ste…” and “Sti…” have different third letters. Another mistake is forgetting that when two words are identical up to the last letter of the shorter word, the shorter word comes first. Carefully comparing each position avoids these mistakes.

Final Answer:
The correct dictionary order is Soften, Status, Sterile, Sterilize, Stick, corresponding to the sequence 15423.