This question reminded me my old note I kept for case. It doesn't cover the actual topic but can be (or cannot be) considered as some hint.

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use List::Util qw(max);

# Lower weight means higher precedence
my %weight_map = (
    alligator => 100,
    bear => 90,
    cat => 80,
    jellyfish => 10,
    zebra => 1,
);

my $weight_lowest = max(values %weight_map) + 1;

my @z0 = qw/ bear wolf jellyfish zebra dog fox cat /;

my @z1 = sort { $a cmp $b } @z0;

my @z2 = sort {
    ( $weight_map{$a} // $weight_lowest )
    <=>
    ( $weight_map{$b} // $weight_lowest )
    or
    $a cmp $b;
} @z0;

print <<RESULT;
unsorted : [@z0]
sorted   : [@z1]
weighted : [@z2]
RESULT
[download]

And the execution results to:

unsorted : [bear wolf jellyfish zebra dog fox cat]
sorted   : [bear cat dog fox jellyfish wolf zebra]
weighted : [zebra jellyfish cat bear dog fox wolf]
[download]