[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

hierarchy \hi"erarch`y\ himac"~eraumrk`y^, n.; pl.
   hierarchies himac"~eraumrk`i^z. gr.
   'ierarchi`a: cf. f. hi'erarchie.
   1. dominion or authority in sacred things.
      1913 webster

   2. a body of officials disposed organically in ranks and
      orders each subordinate to the one above it; a body of
      ecclesiastical rulers.
      1913 webster

   3. a form of government administered in the church by
      patriarchs, metropolitans, archbishops, bishops, and, in
      an inferior degree, by priests. --shipley.
      1913 webster

   4. a rank or order of holy beings.
      1913 webster

            standards and gonfalons . . . for distinction serve
            of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees. --milton.

   5. math., logic, computers 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.

   note: classification schemes, as in biology, usually form
         hierarchies.
         pjc
see also:
hierarchies 

Hierarchies >> H Words
Hierarchies, definition of term: Hierarchies
hierarchies_pag1.html