HIERARCHY

hierarchy, power structure, pecking order

(noun) the organization of people at different ranks in an administrative body

hierarchy

(noun) a series of ordered groupings of people or things within a system; “put honesty first in her hierarchy of values”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

hierarchy (plural hierarchies)

A body of authoritative officials organized in nested ranks.

A social, religious, economic or political system or organization in which people or groups of people are ranked with some superior to others based on their status, authority or some other trait.

Any group of objects ranked so that every one but the topmost is subordinate to a specified one above it.

Source: Wiktionary

Hi"er*arch`y, n.; pl. Hierarchies. Etym: [Gr. hiérarchie.]

1. Dominion or authority in sacred things.

2. A body of officials disposed organically in ranks and orders each subordinate to the one above it; a body of ecclesiastical rulers.

3. A form of government administered in the church by patriarchs, metropolitans, archbishops, bishops, and, in an inferior degree, by priests. Shipley.

4. A rank or order of holy beings. Standards and gonfalons . . . for distinction serve Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees. Milton.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition