Hierarchy /(hī"ẽr*ärk`y̆)/

pl. Hierarchies ((hī"ẽr*ärk`ĭz))

1. Dominion or authority in sacred things.
2. A body of officials disposed organically in ranks and orders each subordinate to the one above it; a body of ecclesiastical rulers.
3. A form of government administered in the church by patriarchs, metropolitans, archbishops, bishops, and, in an inferior degree, by priests.
4. A rank or order of holy beings.

   Standards and gonfalons . . . for distinction serve Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees.

5. Any group of objects ranked so that every one but the topmost is subordinate to a specified one above it; also, the entire set of ordering relations between such objects. The ordering relation between each object and the one above is called a hierarchical relation. (Math., Logic, Computers)