hierarchy

Hi"er*arch`y, n.; pl. Hierarchies. Etym: [Gr. hiérarchie.] 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. Shipley. 4. A rank or order of holy beings. Standards and gonfalons . . . for distinction serve Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees. Milton.

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