hierarchy
/ˈhaɪ.ə.ɹɑː(ɹ).ki/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.78 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Gay men and bisexuals were blamed for the [AIDS] epidemic for much the same reason that the church hierarchy in the Middle Ages accused Jewish people of creating bubonic plague by "poisoning the wells.""
- "The [Washington] Post's proprietor through those turbulent [Watergate] days, Katharine Graham, held a double place in Washington’s hierarchy: at once regal Georgetown hostess and scrappy newshound, ready to hold the establishment to account."
- "Social defeat arises in strict social hierarchies in which the few dominate the many. Overcrowding exacerbates the many ills of social defeat within these social hierarchies based on dominance."
- "... the surviving portions provide enough detail to outline its principal features: the hierarchy of beings to whom his liturgy was to be addressed (we previously considered Plethon's hierarchy of gods in our examination of his Summary[…]"
Etymology
From Middle English ierarchie, jerarchie, from Old French ierarchie, jerarchie, from Late Latin ierarchia, from Latin hierarchia, from Ancient Greek ἱεραρχία (hierarkhía, “rule of a high priest”), from ἱεράρχης (hierárkhēs, “high priest”), from ἱερός (hierós, “holy”) + ἄρχω (árkhō, “to rule”), equivalent to hiero- + -archy. The H was re-added c. 1500 due to influence from Classical Latin.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: ierarchie, ierarchia, hierarchia, ἱεραρχία