hierarchy
noun
Simple meaning
A series of ordered groupings of people or things within a system.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
hyerahrkeeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhaɪɚɑɹki
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A series of ordered groupings of people or things within a system
“Put honesty first in her hierarchy of values.”
A social, religious, economic or political system or organization in which people or groups of people are ranked with some superior to others based on their status, authority or some other trait.
The organization of people at different ranks in an administrative body
Any group of objects ranked so that every one but the topmost is subordinate to a specified one above it.
A body of authoritative officials organized in nested ranks.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A series of ordered groupings of people or things within a system
Used this way, hierarchy is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“Put honesty first in her hierarchy of values.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “hierarchy of …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Natural pattern: hierarchy of …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use hierarchy
- “Put honesty first in her hierarchy of values.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Organization / body
Other combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Classified according to various criteria into successive levels or layers.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The collective body of angels.
An arrangement of data consisting of sets and subsets such that every subset of a set is of lower rank than the set.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.