Hierarchy

How to spell hierarchy

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce hierarchy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hierarchy mean?

1. nounA system in which people or things are ranked one above another according to status, authority, or importance.

Hierarchy in a sentence

• There is a strict hierarchy in the office.

• The corporate hierarchy is quite strict.

• There's a clear hierarchy among the pack.

Where does hierarchy come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the Greek hierarkhia, which described the rule or authority of a high priest. It was built from hieros, meaning 'sacred' or 'holy', and arkhein, the verb 'to rule' or 'to lead', the same element that gives us 'monarchy' and 'anarchy'. The original sense was strictly religious: a hierarkhes was a priest who presided over sacred rites, and a hierarchy was the ranked order of angels or of clergy in the medieval church. English took the word in the 1300s through Old French and Latin, and only later did it broaden from heavenly and ecclesiastical ranks to describe any graded ladder of power in business, government, or society. The tricky spelling preserves that Greek hier- root, so the silent middle and the 'archy' ending both reward anyone who remembers the word literally means 'sacred rule'.

How the word is built

• hier- (sacred, from Greek hieros)
• -archy (rule, government, from Greek arkhein 'to rule')