01 n. Dominion or authority in sacred things.
pl.
Hierarchies ((hī"ẽr*ärk`ĭz))
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1.
Dominion or authority in sacred things.
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2.
A body of officials disposed organically in ranks and orders each subordinate to the one above it; a body of ecclesiastical rulers.
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3.
A form of government administered in the church by patriarchs, metropolitans, archbishops, bishops, and, in an inferior degree, by priests.
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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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5.
Any group of objects ranked so that every one but the topmost is subordinate to a specified one above it; also, the entire set of ordering relations between such objects. The ordering relation between each object and the one above is called a hierarchical relation.(Math., Logic, Computers)