Definition of "hierarchy" []

• A body of persons having authority. (noun)
• Categorization of a group of people according to ability or status. (noun)
• The group so categorized. (noun)
• A series in which each element is graded or ranked: put honesty first in her hierarchy of values. (noun)
• A body of clergy organized into successive ranks or grades with each level subordinate to the one above. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The label hierarchy couldn't have been that disgruntled."
• "In less austere terms, a hierarchy is a collection of parts with ordered asymmetric relationships inside a whole."
• "And the hierarchy is a "self-perpetuating elite," he continued."