Alphabetizer
Put any list or reference list into alphabetical order in seconds with this free alphabetizer: A to Z or Z to A, with leading A, An and The ignored.
What Is the Alphabetizer?
The Alphabetizer is a free tool that sorts any list into alphabetical order instantly - built specifically for the task every referencing style demands: an alphabetized reference list. APA, MLA, Harvard and Chicago all require entries ordered by author surname, and hand-sorting a thirty-source bibliography is exactly the kind of task that wastes time and invites errors. Paste your references or any other list - names, terms, sources - and the tool returns them in clean A-Z order, one per line, ready to drop into your document.
How to Use the Alphabetizer
- Paste your list into the input box - one entry per line.
- Choose A to Z or Z to A - the list is sorted instantly as you paste.
- Keep “Ignore A, An and The” ticked so entries that begin with a title sort correctly.
- Copy the ordered list into your reference section and apply hanging indents.
Alphabetizing Reference Lists: The Rules Markers Check
Reference lists alphabetize by the first author's surname - Smith before Smithson, and prefixes like van or de follow your style guide's convention. Entries with no author alphabetize by the first significant word of the title, ignoring A, An and The. Multiple works by the same author order by year, earliest first; same author and same year get lettered (2023a, 2023b). After sorting, apply a hanging indent (0.5 inch) to every entry - required by APA, MLA and Chicago. Our free citation generators produce entries ready to paste straight into this tool.
Alphabetizing Edge Cases, Style by Style
Most lists sort themselves, but a few cases trip students up every term:
- "Nothing precedes something": in APA, Brown, J. comes before Browning, A., because the shorter surname runs out first.
- Same first author: in APA, a one-author entry comes before entries where the same person is first of several authors. Smith, J. (2020) comes before Smith, J., & Lee, K. (2019).
- Same author, same year: add lowercase letters after the year (2023a, 2023b) and order those entries by title.
- Mc and Mac: APA alphabetizes these exactly as written, letter by letter, so MacArthur comes before McAdams.
- Numbers at the start of an entry: alphabetize them as if spelled out, so "3M Company" sorts under T. The alphabetizer puts entries that start with a numeral first, so move them by hand to where the spelled-out number belongs.
- Group authors: use the full organization name, such as American Psychological Association, not its abbreviation.
After sorting, compare a few tricky entries against your style guide. The alphabetizer puts the list in order; it cannot tell which word is a surname prefix in your source.
Other Lists Worth Alphabetizing
Alphabetical order helps any list a reader needs to search: glossaries and key terms for a lab report, a vocabulary list for language revision, appendix lists of interview participants (by pseudonym), or names in an acknowledgements section. Choose "Remove duplicates" when you merge lists from several drafts, and use the comma option for lists you need to paste into a single line, such as keywords under an abstract.
Checking a Sorted Reference List
Once your list is in order, read down the first word of each entry. Any surname that looks out of place usually means the entry starts with a first name or initial instead of the surname, or with a title where an author should be. Fix the entry itself, then sort again. Also check that the in-text citations match: every source cited in your paper should appear in the list, and every entry in the list should be cited somewhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the alphabetizer free?
Yes - completely free, no account needed, and unlimited use.
Does it ignore "The" and "A" at the start of titles?
Yes - with the “Ignore A, An and The” option on (the default), entries that begin with a title are sorted by the first significant word, as APA, MLA and Chicago require. Untick it to sort by the exact text.
Can I alphabetize numbers or dates?
The tool sorts text alphabetically; numeric strings sort by their digits as text. For year-ordered author entries, sort by surname first, then reorder same-author entries by year manually.
Which styles require alphabetized reference lists?
APA, MLA, Harvard and Chicago bibliographies all use A-Z order by author surname. Numbered styles like Vancouver order by citation sequence instead.