ˈhīəˌrärkē, -ˌrȧk-, -ki also ˈhīˌr noun
( -es )
Etymology: Middle English ierarchie, from Middle French ierarchie, hierarchie, from Medieval Latin hierarchia, from Late Greek, from Greek hierarchēs + -ia -y
1. : a rank or order of holy beings — see celestial hierarchy
2. : a form of government administered by an authoritarian group
the company town implies a hierarchy despotically, if benevolently, guiding the lives of those beneath — W.H.Whyte
the hierarchy relates all units in vertical levels of responsibility — J.E.Pate
especially : control exercised by a priesthood
unlimited centralization of ecclesiastical hierarchy — A.C.N.Gallenga
3.
a. : an authoritarian body of religious officials organized by rank and jurisdiction
the priest, with the hierarchy at his back, was in theory almost everything to his people — G.G.Coulton
three cardinals and 65 bishops attended the annual meeting of the American hierarchy — Official Catholic Yearbook
the power … of the great Buddhist hierarchy is nothing less than stupendous — Edith Hamilton
b. : a controlling group of any kind
when all power is centered in the top hierarchy of a single party, there is none left over to serve as a check against the ruling class — A.M.Schlesinger b.1917
officials at the pinnacle of the mobilization hierarchy — Wall Street Journal
the publisher who has … exceeded his proper function by becoming the head and dictator of the newspaper hierarchy — Alistair Cooke
at the bottom of the hierarchy of managerial personnel are the foremen — Kurt Braun
rising steadily in the hierarchy of the local Boy Scouts — Brendan Gill
4.
a. : the classification of a group of people with regard to ability or economic or social standing
the function of true criticism is to establish a definite hierarchy among the great artists of the past — C.W.Shumaker
continuous waves of new immigrants, each pushing the preceding waves upward in the ethnic hierarchy — Richard Hofstadter
the seating arrangement was an accurate index of the Hollywood hierarchy — Budd Schulberg
b. : a group of people so classified
made his way into the hierarchy of business families in Montreal — Hugh MacLennan
c. : the status attaching to such a group
the social hierarchy that may be associated with possessions — Ruth Benedict
specifically : a graded series of social statuses or class levels
upper and lower class hierarchy in a community
5.
a. : the arrangement of objects, elements, or values in a graduated series
the hierarchy of occupations is based on the degree of skill and responsibility they entail
government officials determine the hierarchy of importance of affairs of state
b. : a series of objects, elements, or values so arranged
the Supreme Court is the head of a hierarchy of federal courts — Felix Frankfurter
in the multicellular organism there is a hierarchy of levels — cells, tissues, organs — A.B.Novikoff
specifically logic : a series the members of which are grouped in accordance with a principle (as of importance, perfection or priority)
hierarchy of values
an ontological hierarchy in which the objects of knowledge are arranged in an ascending order of reality — George Boas
c. : the stratification so achieved
a rigid hierarchy of clubs — R.M.Lovett
specifically : a table of statistical correlations having a constant proportional relationship and graded from high to low