Alphabetische

Alphabetische is the attributive form of the German adjective alphabetisch, meaning alphabetical. It is used to describe items arranged according to the order of the alphabet. In German, alphabetische inflects for gender, number, and case: die alphabetische Reihenfolge (feminine singular with definite article), eine alphabetische Liste (feminine singular with indefinite article), alphabetische Listen (plural). The adverbial form is alphabetisch, as in Die Wörter werden alphabetisch sortiert.

The term appears across domains such as education, publishing, library science, and computing, where lists, indexes, and databases are organized by alphabetical order. Common phrases include alphabetische Reihenfolge, alphabetische Liste, and alphabetische Sortierung. In data processing, alphabetical sorting is a basic operation implemented by many systems, and collation can follow locale-specific rules in German, which may affect handling of umlauts (ä, ö, ü) and the letter ß.

Etymology-wise, alphabetische is formed from Alphabet (the word for alphabet) plus the adjectival suffix -isch, with the attributive ending -e in feminine singular and plural forms. It is not a standalone concept; rather, it is a grammatical form used to describe other nouns.

See also: Alphabet, Alphabetical order, Locale, Sorting algorithm.