My question would be, if I were to pick up a Japanese **dictionary** , or had
a project in which I needed to put **several Japanese words** (including
hiragana, katakana, and kanji, with gojūon, dakuon, yōon, sakuon and the
digraphs) **in order** , what would be the correct "alphabetical" order? I
understand some of it, such as the fact that they all need to be read
according to the gojūon order ( _a ka sa ta..._ ) in hiragana form, and the
smaller forms of kana come after the original forms.

I looked everywhere online and was unable to find a full list or explanation
to this, I only found the separate tables for kana, which only confused me
more.

I am only a beginner to learning the language, and every little helps me to
understand it and the culture better!
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kana dictionary word-order
What is the order of the full list of kana?
Part of the reason why this is a little tough to explain is that there are
actually several historical "alphabetical" orders, so to speak. The two that
are probably the most recognized today are the 五十音｛ごじゅうおん｝and the いろは systems
of organizing the alphabet.

In most cases, you'll encounter the 五十音 system, such as when browsing a
dictionary, or shopping for titles at a CD, movie, or bookstore. As you
mentioned before, the consonant categories are grouped together, so for
example, you might just see inserts that are あ か さ た な は ま and so on. Going
from here, you should know that the 五十音 system typically orders words based on
the first character's sound, and so, for example, items that begin with the
sounds あいうえお are all under the あ tab, and in that order. Then, **あ** い will be
before **う** た, and **う** た is before **え** き in a dictionary.

Aside from this, oftentimes, you must consider 濁点{だくてん} ( ゛) and 半濁点{はんだくてん} (
゜) usage in words. This means that words like へた and べんきょう and ペン might all be
in the same general section of the dictionary (because they are all starting
with the character へ). Most dictionaries will have all the non-濁点 words first,
followed by the 濁点-starting words, followed by the 半濁点-starting words, before
moving to the next kana. So, は then ば then ぱ then ひ, for example.

In words with「っ」in them, these might be placed after wherever the つ is located
(i.e. さつえい before さっき) or might be all the way at the end of the kana section
(i.e. さんぽ before さっき), but not before the 濁点 and 半濁点 variations (i.e. さっき
before ざっし). This varies to some degree depending on your source material.

Many beginner/learner dictionaries will have a word lookup based on the
learner's base alphabet (in English this would be ABC order), and is useful
until you become used to the standard 五十音 grouping. In addition, once you
start your journey into reading 漢字｛かんじ｝ you'll find it much easier to locate
the word you're looking for in a Japanese-language dictionary.
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The dictionaries I have use the following order. (From the publishers 小学館, 三省堂
and 学研.)

The usual lexicographic order by _gojūon_ , mostly **ignoring** whether a
_kana_ has _(han)dakuten_ or is a small _kana_.

(Recall the _gojūon_ order means **あ** いうえお **か** きくけこ **さ** しすせそ **た** ちつてと
**な** にぬねの **は** ひふへほ **ま** みむめも **や** ゆよ **ら** りるれろ **わ**. You can
reconstruct this by memorizing あいうえお and あかさたなはまやらわ. Also see [What is the
equivalent of "alphabetical order" in
Japanese?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/628/1628))

Shorter words come first, so

  * ぎょうじ【行事】
  * きょうしつ【教室】

Small _kana_ and _(han)dakuten_ are only used as a last resort — to order
words that would be in the same position under the above rule:

  * ひょう【雹】
  * びよう【美容】
  * びょう【秒】
  * ひょうか【評価】
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