hierarchy

n. system in which persons or things are arranged one above the other according to rank; group which governs; group of church officials ranked successively

For the various types of hierarchy, see hierarchy (disambiguation) A hierarchy (in Greek: , derived from — hieros, 'sacred', and — arkho, 'rule') is a system of ranking and organizing things or people, where each element of the system (except for the top element) is a subordinate to a single other element.
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Noun
1. a series of ordered groupings of people or things within a system; "put honesty first in her hierarchy of values"
(hypernym) series
(hyponym) celestial hierarchy
(part-holonym) system, scheme
2. the organization of people at different ranks in an administrative body
(synonym) power structure, pecking order
(hypernym) organization, organisation
(part-holonym) administration, governance, governing body, establishment, brass, organization, organisation

(n.)
Dominion or authority in sacred things.
  

(n.)
A rank or order of holy beings.
  

(n.)
A form of government administered in the church by patriarchs, metropolitans, archbishops, bishops, and, in an inferior degree, by priests.
  

(n.)
A body of officials disposed organically in ranks and orders each subordinate to the one above it; a body of ecclesiastical rulers.
  

An organisation with few things, or one thing, at the top and with several things below each other thing. An inverted tree structure. Examples in computing include a directory hierarchy where each directory may contain files or other directories; a hierarchical network (see hierarchical routing), a class hierarchy in object-oriented programming.
(1994-10-11)