A one-pot, two-step cyclization reaction of iodoarenes with diversified arylols, including 4-hydroxyquinoline, quinolinone, 4-hydroxypyridine and phenol, has been developed. By using this palladium-catalyzed formal tandem O-arylation, dehydrogenative cross-coupling reaction, a variety of biologically significant fused benzo[4,5]furo heterocycles and dibenzofurans were quickly assembled in high yields with excellent regioselectivity. Notably, the efficient one-pot reaction led to the heterocycles via sequential oxidation, iodination, isomerization and cyclization steps without purification of any reaction intermediates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]