Definition of "hieratic" [hi•er•at•ic]

• Of or associated with sacred persons or offices; sacerdotal. (adjective)
• Constituting or relating to a simplified cursive style of Egyptian hieroglyphics, used in both sacred and secular writings. (adjective)
• Extremely formal or stylized, as in a work of art. (adjective)

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.

• "After the Egyptologists of the school of De Rouge 36 thought they had demonstrated that the familiar symbols of the Phoenician alphabet had been copied from that modified form of Egyptian hieroglyphics known as the hieratic writing, the Assyriologists came forward to prove that certain characters of the Babylonian syllabary also show a likeness to the alphabetical characters that seemingly could not be due to chance."
• "It is known as the hieratic script; and the material invented for the use of the scribe was papyrus."
• "This cursive writing, which was somewhat incorrectly termed hieratic, was used only for public or private documents, for administrative correspondence, or for the propagation of literary, scientific, and religious works."