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.
Any group of objects ranked so that every one but the topmost is subordinate to a specified one above it.
“The hierarch rose hastily and glanced into his dark keen eyes with an inquiring look.”
“A postulant who wishes to enter the spiritual life has a sponsor who presents him to the hierarch.”
“But, in the end, I don't really care to stand here and tell you what a liar this or that politician or clerical hierarch or fat-cat business tycoon is.”
“According to Foucault normalization is an instrument of power and plays a role in classification and hierarchization.”
“Theirs was a tenacity to continue to confront and challenge the hierarchization of labor, which remains very much in vogue.”
“They are all categorically the same, but there still seems to be a hierarchization of this material, which is a near-ethical dilemma that I find fascinating.”
hierarchicalism
The process or policy of organising as a hierarchy.
“There is a mosaic in Ravenna portraying saints, martyrs, hierarchs, and faithful laity, each of them holding a crown that they will place at the feet of Christ.”
“The works of their most respected theologians and thinkers are not only still unavailable in most of Russia's seminaries, but are also viewed by many hierarchs as heretical.”
“They included a horde of diversity co-ordinators, community liaison officers, social inclusion officers and suchlike hierarchs of the priesthood of political correctness.”