Arrange the following words as per their order in an English dictionary and choose the one that comes first.
preview; pretence; previous; prettier

To arrange the words in alphabetical order, let's compare them letter by letter:
1. All four words start with the same first three letters: pre-
2. Comparing the 4th letter:
* pretence, prettier $\to$ 't'
* preview, previous $\to$ 'v'
Since 't' comes before 'v', we compare 'pretence' and 'prettier' first.

3. Comparing the 5th letter of 'pretence' ('e') and 'prettier' ('t'):
* 'e' comes before 't'.
* Therefore, pretence is the first word in the dictionary sequence.

The complete dictionary order is: pretence $\to$ prettier $\to$ previous $\to$ preview.