a system in which people or groups are ranked according to their status or authority
In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence — Laurence J Peter
(the hierarchy) people in authority; the people at the top of a hierarchy
a system in which things are ranked according to importance, e.g. the arrangement of plants into classes, species, etc
(the hierarchy) the clergy in the Catholic Church or an episcopal Church organized according to rank; specif the bishops of a province or nation
in theology, the organization of heavenly beings, e.g. angels, into ranks
hierarchic /hie·əʹrahkik/ adj
hierarchical /-ʹrahkikl/ adj
hierarchically /-ʹrahkikli/ adv
Middle English ierarchie via French and medieval Latin from late Greek hierarchia, from Greek hierarchēs: see hierarch. The word originally referred to the hierarchy of angels in heaven