Sort one complete item per line
Paste a list with one entry on each line, choose ascending or descending order and press Sort list. The tool moves complete lines into the selected sequence. It does not rewrite the words inside an entry, remove repeated entries or decide which part of a name should be treated as a surname. The result is another plain-text list that you can review and copy.
This is useful for a vocabulary list, a collection of labels, a reading checklist or filenames copied as text. An entry can contain several words: North Station remains one item when it is written on one line. Alphabetizing the list does not alphabetize the letters of that phrase or split it into separate words.
Prepare the input before sorting. Commas and semicolons are ordinary characters within a line, not automatic item separators. A list written as pear, apple, banana on a single line will remain one entry. Replace the separators with real line breaks when each word should be sorted independently. Visual wrapping caused by the width of the input box does not create extra entries.
Choose the direction and number handling
Ascending or descending
Ascending order is the A to Z direction and is selected initially. Descending uses the opposite comparison direction, commonly described as Z to A. Both choices compare the whole entry from its beginning. If all your lines start with the same label, the comparison continues into the remaining text to find a difference.
Descending is not simply “reverse whatever I pasted.” A pasted sequence might already be irregular, while descending produces an ordered result according to the same comparison rules as ascending. If you want an arbitrary new sequence, that is a randomization task. If you want to preserve the exact input order but remove repeats, that is duplicate removal rather than sorting.
Natural number order
Natural number order is initially enabled. It lets digit sequences participate as numbers, so item 2 comes before item 10 in ascending order. This is often the useful choice for chapter labels, numbered filenames and version-like labels containing ordinary integer sequences. It avoids the surprise of seeing every item beginning with 1 placed before item 2.
Turn the option off when you need text comparison of those digits instead. With the same prefix, item 10 then comes before item 2 in ascending order. Neither setting is universally right: choose according to how the destination interprets your labels. Natural ordering is not a spreadsheet calculation or a parser for every possible numeric notation.
In particular, do not treat this option as a promise to compare currency, negative values, decimal commas, dates or measurement units mathematically. These strings contain punctuation and text as well as digits. A date written day first is still a text entry, not a date object. For those datasets, use an application that understands the actual value type and your required format.
Three examples to check the chosen order
Ordinary words with a repeated entry
Paste these four lines and keep ascending order:
pear
apple
banana
apple
The output is apple, apple, banana and pear on four lines. Both copies of apple remain. Change to descending and run again to obtain pear, banana, apple and apple. The number of entries stays the same because sorting changes positions, not membership. If the duplicate is accidental, remove it in a separate cleaning step rather than expecting alphabetization to hide it.
This is also a useful test for a destination document. Copy the result into an empty note and confirm that each entry still occupies its own line. Some applications add bullets or paragraph spacing on paste; that presentation is controlled by the destination, not by the alphabetical comparison itself.
Labels containing numbers
Use item 10, item 2 and item 1 on separate lines. With natural number order enabled, ascending produces item 1, item 2, item 10. With the option disabled, the same direction produces item 1, item 10, item 2. The letters are identical, so this small example isolates the effect of the number setting.
When natural order is enabled and you choose descending, the sequence becomes item 10, item 2, item 1. This can be helpful when the highest numbered chapter should appear first. It does not mean that the tool recognizes the labels as chapters or versions; it is comparing digit sequences within text, regardless of what those labels mean.
Full names are compared from the beginning
Put Maria Silva, Ana Souza and Bruno Costa on separate lines. Ascending order gives Ana Souza, Bruno Costa, Maria Silva. The first names control this example because they appear first in each line. The tool does not infer that Costa, Silva and Souza are family names or automatically move those words to the front.
If a directory must be ordered by surname, prepare a consistent surname-first representation before sorting. Decide how to handle compound names and particles according to the directory's own rules. Merely selecting a different page language does not turn the operation into a personal-name parser. Once the desired sort key is at the beginning, sorting can arrange those complete lines without separating their remaining text.
How language, accents and capitalization affect comparison
Sorting follows the current page language: English, Spanish or Portuguese. This matters when your list includes accented letters or a mixture of capitals and lowercase letters. Choose the language whose alphabetical conventions you want to follow, rather than expecting every language version to arrange all possible names in exactly the same way.
Accents and capitalization are not removed from the output. Differences in accents and letter case can affect the order. Do not assume that a word with an accent is identical to the same word without it, or that every capital letter will be grouped ahead of every lowercase letter. The exact order follows the selected language and the browser's language rules.
For a list with names from several languages, choose the page language that matches the convention you intend to use and review a representative sample. No single alphabetical convention resolves every multilingual naming situation. If your organization has a required filing rule, especially for particles, punctuation or accented names, compare the generated result with that rule before publishing it.
The browser's language data can also change across implementations or updates. For an informal checklist, reviewing the result may be enough. For a workflow that must reproduce exactly the same order across systems, keep the approved output and document the required comparison rules. This page does not offer a fixed custom collation table or a setting for every regional filing convention.
Keep related data together while preparing the list
Sorting whole lines works well when each line is a complete record. A title followed by its reference code on the same line moves as one unit. If the title is on one line and its code on the next, they become two independently sortable entries and can separate. Combine connected information before sorting when it needs to stay together.
The same caution applies to spreadsheets. Sorting a copied column of names separately from its associated dates or scores can break the relationship between fields when pasted back. This tool does not know which cells belong to the same record. For a table with related columns, use the table application's row-sorting features or prepare a complete text record per line.
Leading bullets, numbers and prefixes are part of the entry and may influence the comparison. If every line already begins with an old position number, sorting might follow that prefix rather than the word you care about. Remove obsolete numbering before sorting and add fresh numbering afterward when the final list needs numbered positions.
Blank lines, edge spaces and repeated lines are not cleaned automatically. A blank line remains an entry in the sorted text, and its position may change. Spaces at the beginning of a line also remain. If you see an unexpected group at the start or end, inspect the actual characters instead of assuming the tool has changed the alphabet.
Review, copy and handle larger inputs
Changing the input or the selected options clears the previous result. Run Sort list again after each change so that the displayed output matches your latest settings. Review entries around letter changes, numeric transitions and any accents that matter. A check of item 2 and item 10 is a quick way to confirm which number mode you applied.
The input accepts up to 200,000 characters. An empty or whitespace-only input produces a prompt to enter text. The result field is read-only, so final edits belong in your destination editor or in a revised source that you sort again. If clipboard access fails, select and copy the output manually, then check the pasted list before replacing existing content.
Do not divide an oversized list into independent blocks and assume that joining the sorted outputs gives a globally sorted list. The last entry of one block might belong after several entries in the next. Global order requires a comparison across all entries, or a proper merge of already sorted groups. For a larger dataset, choose a tool that supports its size and structure.
For cleaning repeated items first, use Remove duplicate lines. To add labels or numbering after sorting, use Add prefix and suffix. Keeping preparation, sorting and final formatting separate makes each decision visible: which entries belong, how they should be arranged, and how the finished list should look.