n. pl. hi·er·ar·chies 1. A group of persons or things organized into successive ranks or grades with each level subordinate to the one above: a career spent moving up through the military hierarchy. 2. Categorization or arrangement of a group of people or things into such ranks or grades: classification by hierarchy; discounting the effects of hierarchy. 3. A body of persons having authority: "his relations with Hitler and the Nazi hierarchy" (John Kenneth Galbraith). 4. A group of animals in which certain members or subgroups dominate or submit to others. 5. One of three main divisions of angels in traditional Christian angelology. [Middle English ierarchie, from Old French, from Medieval Latin hierarchia, from Greek hierarkhiā, rule of a high priest, from hierarkhēs, high priest; see HIERARCH.] |
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