Why does 'candle-stick' come before 'candle-wick' in the dictionary entry? dour' in the dictionary entry?

it comes before because s comes before w.  

Explanation:

if you have the same work spelled the same, you go down the word until there are 2 letters not the same. and in this case s comes before w.

.the definitions

.the number of syllables in the word

.the pronunciation of the word

.the parts of speech

.the foreign translations

what excerpt? i would generally think a.