...do you know what it means?

 

Haven't a clue !

 

It means to put words in order according to the alphabet. The first list below is Alphabetical the second is not. Hoepfully you were being serious and I didn't miss the sarcastic tone *L*

1)
Army
Arrange
Bear
Cat
Dog

2)
Cat
Army
Dog
Bear

 

its the verb for putting things in alphabetical order.

 

Surely one named "academic" is aware of the word???????????????????

 

My first job was when I was 14 as a roofer (summer Job). Then my summer jobs went to: concrete construction for 2 summers;house construction for the next summer; painting for the University of Mississippi the next summer; then an internship programwhere I earned6 hourstoward mycollege degreeas well as $11/hour pay;then I got my job here at the insurance company.
Believe it or not, probably the most fun I ever had at ajobwas theconcrete construction job. But that is definitaly no way to make a living if you value yourknuckles, knees, elbows, etc (operating a 75lb jackhammer is tough on the joints)and you have a college education.

 

Oh dear ! Time to dial back on the sly humour I guess. Obviously I can work out the meaning, it is a business jargon word and it describes a sorting function perfectly. However, I have never heard it used before in business but then I always worked in the rough end of Business Management [Operations mgt.] and that is the subject I taught in university.
Reminds me of a quotation from Winston Churchill "Two nations divided by a common language"
But I do still like the word.
Truce on this one,cousins.

 

Afterthought. Alphabetize is American business jargon. The clue is in the word ending -ize. If it were Uk, it would end -ise. We rarely have words ending in ize.
English language is totally irregular - that is to say, it can develop new words, it evolves and changes all the time. We have many news channels on BBC. One is for our Asian citizens. The news is mostly in Urdu but littered with English words because Urdu cannot adopt new words.
Think about all the recent new words in English - internet, byte, blogging, etc. Some of these are common in all English-speaking countries and some are not. At the moment there are several streams to the Language - Britain, US, OZ/NZ, S. Africa - all evolving their own version. The day will dawn when we will need interpreting to each other.
Nafango - i was taking the p.... and for that I apologise. offence not intended.