diff --git a/ask.c b/ask.c
index 7ea4de5..ba83315 100644
--- a/ask.c
+++ b/ask.c
@@ -295,6 +295,11 @@ static char *get_input(FILE *in, FILE *out, const char *prompt, const char *init
     return picked;
 }
 
+static int cmp_len(const void *a, const void *b)
+{
+    return (int)(strlen(*(char**)a) - strlen(*(char**)b));
+}
+
 int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 {
     int yes = 0, no = 0;
@@ -397,6 +402,8 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
     if (tcsetattr(fileno(tty_out), TCSAFLUSH, &bb_termios) == -1)
         return 1;
 
+    // Prefer shorter matches, but otherwise keep original order (mergesort is stable)
+    mergesort(opts, (size_t)nopts, sizeof(char*), cmp_len);
     char *output = get_input(tty_in, tty_out, prompt, query, nopts, opts);
 
     fflush(tty_out);