MH Police Bharti · Bite-size lessons
Word Arrangement
About 6 min · Intellectual Test (Reasoning) · English
Time worked out from the lesson's 406 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.
Word Arrangement is a core reasoning topic in the Maharashtra Police Bharti exam that tests your ability to organize words systematically.
Key ideas
- Dictionary Order Principle: Words are arranged exactly as in a dictionary—compare letter by letter from left to right. The word with the "earlier" letter at the first point of difference comes first.
- Letter-by-Letter Comparison: When first letters are identical, move to the second letter. Continue this process until you find a difference. Example: "BANK" comes before "BEST" because A < E at position 2.
- Shorter Word Priority: If one word is a prefix of another, the shorter word comes first. Example: "CAR" comes before "CARD" in dictionary order.
- Alphabet Position Awareness: Know positions instantly—A=1, B=2... Z=26. Middle reference: M=13, N=14. This helps in quick comparison.
- Meaningful Word Formation: Rearrange given jumbled letters to form a valid English word. Only one meaningful word is usually possible from the given letters.
Watch out for
- Comparing wrong positions: Students compare the last letters instead of finding the first point of difference. → Always start comparison from the first letter and move right only when letters match.
- Confusing "from left" and "from right": After forming the word, carelessly counting from the wrong end. → Underline the word, mark L→ above for left, ←R for right, then count.
- Forgetting shorter-word rule: Placing "CARE" after "CAREFUL" because it seems incomplete. → The shorter word always precedes if it's a prefix of the longer word.
Quick reference
- Dictionary order = Letter-by-letter from left; first difference decides
- Shorter word before longer when one is prefix of other (CAR before CARD)
- For meaningful words: Spot vowels first, build around them
- Position from right: Count backward (last letter = 1st from right)
- Verify your word uses ALL given letters exactly once
Check yourself: 3 questions
1. Arrange the following words in dictionary order: 1. Machine 2. Machinery 3. Mach 4. Machinist 5. Macho
2. Arrange the following words to form a meaningful sentence: 1. important 2. discipline 3. is 4. very 5. life 6. in
3. Arrange the following words in dictionary order: 1. Accommodate 2. Accelerate 3. Accumulate 4. Accomplish 5. Acclimatize
This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 21 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.
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