hierarchy

Academic Word List, sublist 7.

About 14.40 uses per million words.

Meaning

1. noun A body of authoritative officials organized in nested ranks.
2. noun 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.
3. noun Any group of objects ranked so that every one but the topmost is subordinate to a specified one above it.

Similar words

power structure pecking order hierarchical seniority class leadership high-ranking affiliated authority classification

Often followed by

of and in is to was that as are

Word family

hierarchical hierarchies