Alphabetizing

Q. Please help me alphabetize Villa Grove and Village. (My son and I have a disagreement on this.)

A. You can’t go wrong. If you use word-by-word alphabetizing, Villa Grove comes first. If you use letter-by-letter alphabetizing, Village comes first. Please read CMOS 16.58–61 to understand these methods.

[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]