Arrange water, ethanol and phenol in increasing order of acidity and give reason for your answer.

Explanation

Increasing order of acidic character is :
ethanol `lt` water `lt` phenol
It can be explained as follows:
The phenoxide ion obtained from phenol by the loss of a proton is stabilized by resonance. However, `OH^(-)` ion obtained after the removal of a proton from water is not stabilized by resonance. Hence, phenol is a stronger acid than water. On the other hand, ethanol is a weaker acid than water because ethoxide ion formed by the loss of a proton from ethanol is destablised by + I effect of electron releasing `-C_(2)H_(5)` group.