Sort ArrayList of strings by length difference

I want to order an ArrayList of strings by length, but not just in numeric order.

Say for example, the list contains these words:

cucumber
aeronomical
bacon
tea
telescopic
fantasmagorical

They need to be ordered by their difference in length to a special string, for example:

intelligent

So the final list would look like this (difference in brackets):

aeronomical     (0)
telescopic      (1)
fantasmagorical (3) - give priority to positive differences? doesn't really matter
cucumber        (3)
bacon           (6)
tea             (8)