hierarchy
hierarchy
/ˈhaɪərɑːki/
(plural hierarchies)
countable, uncountable a system, especially in a society or an organization, in which people are organized into different levels of importance from highest to lowest the social/political hierarchy
She's quite high up in the management hierarchy.
He joined the party in 1966 and quickly moved up the hierarchy.
She is above me in the hierarchy.
There was a clear hierarchy of power in the company.
At the bottom of the corporate hierarchy are part-time low-paid workers.
In most large families there is a hierarchy of age, with the older siblings having more status.
Why does there need to be such a strict hierarchy within the church?
Collocations
adjective
complexrigidstrict…
verb + hierarchy
createdevelopestablish…
hierarchy + verb
be based on something
preposition
in a/the hierarchywithin a/the hierarchyhierarchy of…
phrases
somebody’s level, position, status, etc. in a hierarchy
It was on orders from the party hierarchy that she dropped the investigation.
3 countable (formal) a system that ideas or beliefs can be arranged into according to their importance a hierarchy of needs
Word Origin
late Middle English: via Old French and medieval Latin from Greek hierarkhia, from hierarkhēs ‘sacred ruler’, from hieros ‘sacred’ + arkhēs ‘ruler’. The earliest sense was ‘system of orders of angels and heavenly beings’; the other senses date from the 17th cent.
e.g.