Other forms: hierarchies
A hierarchy is a system where people or things are ranked one above another — who reports to whom, from the bottom to the top. A rigid hierarchy, the management hierarchy, a flat hierarchy with almost no levels.
The word is used well beyond organisations: a hierarchy of needs, a hierarchy of courts, a file hierarchy on a computer. What it always means is levels with something above and something below. The pronunciation is worth practising because the spelling misleads: HIGH-ruh-kee, four syllables, with the stress at the front. The adjective is hierarchical, which is stressed on the third syllable and is one of the harder words in academic English to say cleanly.
1nounrankingA system in which people or things are ranked one above another.
“The hierarchy is flatter than it used to be.”
synonyms: ranking, pecking order, chain of command
2nounhierarchyThe people at the top of such a system.
“The hierarchy has never liked the idea.”
3nounarrangementAn arrangement of things in levels.
“The files are stored in a deep hierarchy of folders.”
hierarchy is a system of ranking.
Greek hierarkhia meant the rule of a high priest — hieros, sacred, plus arkhein, to rule. The word described the ranks of angels before it described the ranks of a company, and the modern office chart is a direct descendant of a medieval diagram of heaven.
Latin
ierarchia
Old French
ierarchie
Middle English
ierarchie
English, today
hierarchy
Built from
From Middle English ierarchie, jerarchie, from Old French ierarchie, jerarchie, from Latin ierarchia, from Latin hierarchia, from Ancient Greek ἱεραρχία (“rule of a high priest”), from ἱεράρχης (“high priest”), from ἱερός (“holy”) + ἄρχω (“to rule”), equivalent to hiero- + -archy. The H was re-added c. 1500 due to influence from Classical Latin.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA