/huy"euh rahr'kee, huy"rahr-/ , n. , pl. hierarchies .
1. any system of persons or things ranked one above another.
2. government by ecclesiastical rulers.
3. the power or dominion of a hierarch.
4. an organized body of ecclesiastical officials in successive ranks or orders: the Roman Catholic hierarchy.
5. one of the three divisions of the angels, each made up of three orders, conceived as constituting a graded body.
6. Also called celestial hierarchy . the collective body of angels.
7. government by an elite group.
8. Ling. the system of levels according to which a language is organized, as phonemic, morphemic, syntactic, or semantic.
[ 1300-50; hierarchia hierarchía rule or power of the high priest, equiv. to hier- HIER- + archía -ARCHY; r. ME jerarchie ierarchie ierarchia, var. of hierarchia ]