hierarchy
Americannoun
plural
hierarchies-
any system of persons or things ranked one above another.
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government by ecclesiastical rulers.
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the power or dominion of a hierarch.
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an organized body of ecclesiastical officials in successive ranks or orders.
the Roman Catholic hierarchy.
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one of the three divisions of the angels, each made up of three orders, conceived as constituting a graded body.
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Also called celestial hierarchy. the collective body of angels.
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government by an elite group.
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Linguistics. the system of levels according to which a language is organized, as phonemic, morphemic, syntactic, or semantic.
noun
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a system of persons or things arranged in a graded order
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a body of persons in holy orders organized into graded ranks
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the collective body of those so organized
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a series of ordered groupings within a system, such as the arrangement of plants and animals into classes, orders, families, etc
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linguistics maths a formal structure, usually represented by a diagram of connected nodes, with a single uppermost element Compare ordering heterarchy tree
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government by an organized priesthood
Other Word Forms
- antihierarchy noun
- hierarchical adjective
- hierarchically adverb
- hierarchism noun
Etymology
Origin of hierarchy
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English jerarchie, from Middle French ierarchie, gerarchie, from Medieval Latin (h)ierarchia, from Late Greek hierarchía “stewardship of sacred rites, rule or power of the high priest,” equivalent to hier(o)- “holy, sacred” + -archía, a combining form meaning “rule”; hier(o)-, -archy
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
While Manchester United's hierarchy still need to answer big questions about Michael Carrick's future, a significant one was answered on Sunday.
From BBC
When I worked at Bell Labs, it distributed organization charts weekly detailing the stacked hierarchy of supervisors, department heads, division heads and directors reporting up to a vice president.
Iran’s military hierarchy has proven to be resilient.
The Portuguese was dismissed on 5 January following his public attack on the club's hierarchy after a 1-1 draw at Leeds the previous day.
From BBC
Perhaps Friday's match against New Zealand, effectively a dead rubber for England given they are already through, is the perfect, pressure-free opportunity for Buttler to help make the hierarchy's decision an easy one.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
