my %hash = (
  "very slow"  => 1,
  "slow"       => 2,
  "slowish"    => 3,
  "medium"     => 4,
  "acceptable" => 5,
  "fast"       => 6,
  "very fast"  => 7,
);

##</code><code>##

my @sorted = sort { $hash{$a} <=> $hash{$b} } @array;

##</code><code>##

my @array = ("slow", "very fast", "fast", "very slow", "acceptable");

##</code><code>##

very slow, slow, acceptable, fast, very fast