Hi"er*arch`y (-&ybreve;), n.; pl. Hierarchies (-&ibreve;z). [Gr. 'ierarchi`a: cf. F. hiérarchie.] 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.

• dominion or authority in sacred things.
  
• A body of officials disposed organically in ranks and orders each subordinate to the one above it; a body of ecclesiastical rulers.
  
• a body of persons in authority.
  
• A form of government administered in the church by patriarchs, metropolitans, archbishops, bishops, and, in an inferior degree, by priests. - Shipley?.
  
• A rank or order of holy beings.
       Standards and gonfalons . . . for distinction serve Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees. - John Milton
  
• Any group of objects ranked so that every one but the topmost is subordinate to a specified one above it. The ordering relation between each object and the one above is called a "hierarchical relation"
  
• a graded or ranked series from top to bottom.
  
• (Music): "the strict nesting of elements or regions in relation to other elements or regions" (Lerdahl, 1992)