WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Hi"er*arch`y
Part of Speech : n.;
Etymology : [Gr. hi?rarchie.]
Definition : 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.

pl. Hierarchies.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913