Hierarchy

Definitions: Hierarchy

Hierarchy

Noun

1. A series of ordered groupings of people or things within a system: "put honesty first in her hierarchy of values".

2. The organization of people at different ranks in an administrative body.

Date "hierarchy" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Specialty Definitions: Hierarchy

Domain	Definitions
Computing	Hierarchy An organisation with few things, or one thing, at the top and with several things below each other thing. An inverted tree structure. Examples in computing include a directory hierarchy where each directory may contain files or other directories; a hierarchical network (see hierarchical routing), a class hierarchy in object-oriented programming. (1994-10-11). Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing.
Mathematics	If, in a matrix of intercorrelations of a set of variates, the row and columns can be so arranged to give the highest correlations in the upper left-hand corner and the lowest correlations in the lower right-hand corner and when this is done there is a constant proportional relationship between adjacent columns, except for diagonal terms, the table is called a hierarchy(Spearman, 1904)and the intercorrelations are said to be an hierarchical order. Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Hierarchy

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Originally, hierarchy means rule by priests. Since hierarchical churches such as the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches had tables of organization that were "hierarchical" in the modern sense of the word, that modern sense came about.

In the modern sense of the word, a hierarchy is a tree- or pyramid-like organization of a group of entities. See the illustration for an example. Different fields use the word in slightly different ways, but a particular definition, which the article will attempt first, captures the core of almost all uses.

Illustration: A hypothetical hierarchical organization for an encyclopedia. Each node "contains" all the sections below it, e.g. the culture section contains the art section and the craft section.

General considerations (informal)

A precise, mathematical definition of hierarchy will be given in the next section. This section will try to explore the ideas behind that more compact definition.

A hierarchy is based on an asymmetrical relationship, such as "is the boss of", "is part of", or "is better than". Such relationships are "asymmetrical" in the sense that if they "work one way", they don't "work the other". For example, if Sally is the boss of Jim, then Jim is not the boss of Sally. When two nodes are related, one is designated the "superior" (or sometimes the "parent") and the other the "subordinate" (or sometimes the "child"). In the intuitive case of the "is the boss of" relation, the boss is the superior and the employee is the subordinate.

A hierarchy's asymmetrical relationship can link entities in one of three ways: directly, indirectly, or not at all. The illustration shows a direct link between the craft and culture sections; the craft section is directly linked to the culture section by the "contains" relationship. This is akin to how your boss in directly in charge of you. In contrast, the illustration shows an indirect link between craft and encyclopedia; the craft section is only "contained" by the encyclopedia as a whole by virtue of being "contained" by the culture section. This is akin to how the CEO of a company is in charge of a factory worker only via middle management. Finally, there is effectively no link between the art and the craft sections; neither section contains the other. This is akin to two co-workers, neither of whom is the other's boss.

...

Every member is reachable from any other by following the relationship in either direction, but there is no way of coming back to a particular member by always following the relationship in the same direction.

...

General considerations (formal)

A hierarchy can thus be represented as a connected directed acyclic graph.

Examples of reasoning with hierarchies

Many aspects of the world are analyzed, arguably fruitfully, from a hierarchical perspective. Science provides the following examples:

In biology, organisms are commonly described as an assembly of parts (organs) which are themselves assemblies of yet smaller parts, and so on.
In physics, the standard model decomposes bodies down to their smallest particle components.
In linguistics, words or sentences are often broken down into hierarchies of parts and wholes.

In all of these examples, the asymmetric relationship is "is composed of".

Many human organizations, such as businesses, churches, armies and political movements are structured hierarchically, at least officially; commonly superiors, called bosses, have more power than their subordinates. Thus the asymmetrical relationship might be "has power over". (Some analysists question whether power "really" works as the traditional organizational chart indicates, however.)

Feminists talk about a hierarchy of gender, in which a culture sees males or masculine traits as superior to females or feminine traits. In the terms above, these feminists present us a hierarchy of only two nodes, "masculine" and "feminine", connected by the asymmetrical relationship "is valued more highly by society". An example of this usage:

The hierarchical nature of the dualism - the systematic devaluation of females and whatever is metaphorically understood as "feminine" - is what I identify as sexism. (Nelson 1992, p. 106)

Note that when feminists and other social critics use the word hierarchy, they usually hope to evoke negative connotations; hierarchy, for them, is a bad thing. In these contexts, hierarchy and power structure are basically synonyms.

Hierarchy is often used to control complexity in engineering endeavors. In object-oriented programming, for example, classes are organized hierarchically; the relationship between two related classes is called inheritance.

Misc

The Wikipedia community is remarkable for being not overtly hierarchically structured, as no contributor possesses inherently higher standing than another. However, some would note that although there is no explicit hierarchy there are social norms which make contributions unequal. Some contributors have more influence because their edits command higher respect and administrative privileges.

Those who frequent Wikis might label Wikipedia's organization "wikiarchical".

The concept of hierarchy qualifies as interdisciplinary.

History of the word

From the greek hieros, sacred + archos, ruler.

External link

Principles and annotated bibliography of hierarchy theory text below to be prosified

Generalizations: Structure

Specializations:

purpose: hierarchical organization
structural properties: hierarchical tree structure, rooted hierarchy
nature of the hierarchical relationship: part-whole hierarchy, containment hierarchy, inheritance hierarchy, responsibility hierarchy, control hierarchy

Relevant examples:

Biology: Linnaean taxonomy
Genealogy: genealogy tree
Linguistics: Chomsky hierarchy
Psychology: Maslow hierarchy of needs

References

Julie Nelson (1992). "Gender, Metaphor and the Definition of Economics". Economics and Philosophy, 8:103-125.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Hierarchy."

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Synonyms: Hierarchy

Synonyms: pecking order (n), power structure (n). (additional references)

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Crosswords: Hierarchy

English words defined with "hierarchy": archangel ♦ Church of Rome, Comtism ♦ Dalai Lama, data hierarchy ♦ food pyramid ♦ Hagiocracy, Hierarchies, Hierarchism, Hierocracy ♦ Irvingite ♦ lower class ♦ rank, Roman Catholic, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Church ♦ securely, slot, social rank, social station, social status ♦ The Grand Lama ♦ Ulema, upper class, upper crust ♦ Western Church. (references)

Specialty definitions using "hierarchy": A Language Encouraging Program Hierarchy ♦ backing store, Bell, Book, and Candle, BOFH, Brian Reid ♦ call processing manager extension, census geography, class hierarchy, Constructive Cost Model ♦ domain address, DS1, DS1C, DS2, DS3 ♦ Estelle ♦ FHS, Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, flexible manufacturing system, frequently asked question ♦ GBD-tree, geographic entity ♦ hierarchical file system, hierarchical routing, Hierarchy, Social ♦ John Gilmore, Jughead ♦ Liskov substitution principle ♦ Makedoc, mid-level network, Models, Organizational, multilevel access ♦ object-oriented design, object-oriented programming ♦ pass word, PDH, Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy, polynomial hierarchy, precedence lossage, primary group, property inheritance ♦ SDH, sensory hierarchy, St. Simonism, Standard International Trade Classification, subject index, Synchronous Digital Hierarchy, synchronous digital hierarchy equipment clock ♦ tabulation geography ♦ USR. (references)

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Modern Usage: Hierarchy

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	I must express in the strongest possible terms my profound opposition to the newly instituted practice which imposes severe and intolerable restrictions on the ingress and egress of senior members of the hierarchy and will, in all probability, should the current deplorable innovation be perpetuated, precipitate a progressive constriction of the channels of communication, culminating in a condition of organisational atrophy and administrative paralysis which will render effectively impossible the coherent and co-ordinated discharge of the function of government within Her Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. (Yes, Prime Minister; writing credit: Tom Musca)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Hierarchy

Domain	Title
Books	Decision Making for Leaders: The Analytic Hierarchy Process for Decisions in a Complex World: 1999/2000 Edition (reference) Don't Kill the Bosses!: Escaping the Hierarchy Trap (reference) Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America (reference) Hinduism & Hierarchy in Bali (World Anthropology.) (reference) Social Dominance : An Intergroup Theory of Social Hierarchy and Oppression (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Sound Hierarchy (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Historic Usage: Hierarchy

Author	Date	Quotation
Communist Manifesto	1848	As privates of the industrial army they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants. (reference)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Use in Literature: Hierarchy

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	She believes in hereditary right, and in the hierarchy.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Hierarchy

Subject	Topic	Quote
Business		So the customer finds different prices at different levels of channel hierarchy. (references)
		Leaders stress the need to maintain stability and social order and are committed to perpetuating the rule of the CCP and its hierarchy. (references)
		The MAN connects customers to the EBN using SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) and DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) transmission technologies. (references)
Civil Liberties	Haiti	While there are associations of voodoo practitioners and priests, there is no organized hierarchy. (references)
	Vietnam	The Council has full powers to control the affairs and manage the operations, the hierarchy, and clergy of the Cao Dai faith. (references)
	Cuba	Following the publication of the article, Communist Party leaders in Havana reportedly apologized to the Catholic Church hierarchy. (references)
Economic History	Samoa	Judicial--Supreme Court and supporting hierarchy. (references)
	Ghana	The hierarchy of courts derives largely from British juridical forms. (references)
	Zambia	The second-ranking person in the Zambian hierarchy was UNIP's secretary general. (references)
Human Rights	Jamaica	There was no evidence to suggest that the violence was politically directed by the PNP hierarchy. (references)
	Nepal	On September 17, the Government announced that it was dropping cases against 41 Maoists, including one of several against Baburam Bhattarai, the number two person in the Maoist hierarchy. (references)
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	The RS judicial hierarchy includes a Supreme Court to provide for the unified enforcement of the law and a Constitutional Court to assure conformity of laws, regulations, and general enactments with the Constitution. (references)
Minorities	Nigeria	Northern Muslims, who lost previously held positions within the military hierarchy, accused the Government of favoring Christians from the Middle Belt for those positions. (references)
Political Economy	PHILIPPINES	The new law clarifies the hierarchy of valuation methods to be used by BOC by removing reference to a price reference database and also authorizes the BOC to conduct post-entry audits. (references)
Political Rights	Nigeria	Middle-belt and Christian officers dominate the military hierarchy. (references)
Travel	Korea	Koreans have a great respect for the family and hierarchy. (references)
	Vietnam	Other participants are generally arranged in a hierarchy on the right and left. (references)
	Korea	The American businessperson, as a foreigner, is generally exempt from the above societal classification system, though one should be prepared to answer questions that Koreans may regard as common to establish societal hierarchy but which foreigners may regard as personal, such as questions of age, marital status, and wage earnings. (references)
Worker Rights	Guinea	Union officials are selected on the basis of nepotism and patronage, rather than through a hierarchy of competence; these individuals are not sensitized to the rights of workers, and often view unions as an enemy of the Government. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Hierarchy

"Hierarchy" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.94% of the time. "Hierarchy" is used about 1,643 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	99.94%	1,642	5,069
Noun (common)	0.06%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	1,643	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expression: Hierarchy

Expressions using "hierarchy": a Language Encouraging Program Hierarchy ♦ class hierarchy ♦ data hierarchy ♦ filesystem Hierarchy Standard ♦ hierarchy of grammatical relation ♦ memory hierarchy ♦ Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy ♦ sensory hierarchy ♦ synchronous Digital Hierarchy ♦ synchronous digital hierarchy equipment clock. Additional references.
Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "hierarchy": hierarchy-he, hierarchy-rests.
	Ending with "hierarchy": status-hierarchy.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Hierarchy

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
hierarchy maslows need	252	digital hierarchy plesiochronous	7
hierarchy maslows	82	synchronous digital hierarchy	6
maslow hierarchy of need	63	hierarchy poker	6
hierarchy of need	60	hierarchy memory	6
hierarchy	57	hierarchy maslow need s	6
catholic hierarchy	27	hierarchy chart	6
maslow hierarchy	24	demon hierarchy	5
angel hierarchy	23	digital hierarchy	5
analytic hierarchy process	22	corporate hierarchy	4
catholic church hierarchy	14	hierarchy office	4
flattened hierarchy	12	hierarchy royal	4
flat hierarchy	12	hierarchy human maslows need	4
abraham hierarchy maslows need	9	chomsky hierarchy	4
hierarchy military	8	analytical hierarchy process	4
gaap hierarchy	7	cast hierarchy indian system	4
data hierarchy	7	hierarchy need theory	4
abraham maslow hierarchy of need	7	hierarchy social	4
celestial hierarchy	7	cast hierarchy indian south system	4
class hierarchy java	7	hierarchy maslows need theory	4
church hierarchy	7	hierarchy organization	4
		hierarchy market shampoo	4
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Hierarchy

Language		Translations for "hierarchy"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		hierarki. (various references)

Arabic		‏مراتب علة, ‏هيئة كهنوت منظمة, ‏سلم (accept, admit, agree, allow, commit, consign, deliver, give in, grant, hand over, ladder, postulate, presume, recognize, render, resign, rung, salaam, salute, scale, secure, stair, staircase, stairway, submit, transmit, turn in, turn over), ‏رتب (arrange, clean, collocate, construct, corral, dispose, do, form, lash up, line, marshal, ordain, order, pack, pigeonhole, plume, put in order, put things straight, range, rate, set, shape, sort, spruce up, stow, straighten, tidy, trim). (various references)

Bulgarian		йерархия (totem pole), ангели. (various references)

Chinese		階層 , 阶层 (Hierarchies). (various references)

Czech		hierarchie. (various references)

Danish		hierarkisk struktur (hierarchical structure), hierarki. (various references)

Dutch		hiërarchische structuur (hierarchical structure), hiërarchie (hierarchical structure). (various references)

Farsi		گروه فرشتگان نه گانه , سلسله مراتب , سلسله سران روحانی وشیوخ . (various references)

Finnish		hierarkkinen rakenne (hierarchical structure), hierarkkinen matriisi, hierarkia (hierarchical structure). (various references)

French		hiérarchie. (various references)

German		hierarchie (hierarchical structure), rangordnung (order of ranks, to rank). (various references)

Greek		ιεραρχία (hierarchical structure, prelacy, prelateship). (various references)

Hebrew		מ�"ר�' (terrace), �"יררכי�", סולם �"ר�'ות, ס�"ר ע�"יפויות. (various references)

Hungarian		rangsor (gradation, gradiation), hierarchia (pecking order), rangszervezet, papi kormányszervezet. (various references)

Indonesian		hirarki, tata tingkat, tata susunan (organization, structure). (various references)

Italian		gerarchia. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		階層 (class, level, stratum), ハーバード大学 (50% beam splitter, half, half coat, half made, half mirror, half size camera, half swing, half tone, half volley, halfback, halftime, halfway house, harem, harem pants, harmonica, harmonize, harmony, harp, harpoon, harpsichord, harpy, Harvard University, herb, herb tea, high, high octane gasoline, high quality, high-class, high-end, high-grade, highjack, high-key, high-key tone, high-octane, high-sulfur, highway, highway patrol, hijack, hike, hiker, hiking, hurler derby, hyena, jai-alai, mouth organ, someone of mixed Japanese-foreign race, stylish fellow, three-quarter, top coat, westernized), �'アルロン酸 (hieroglyph, hyaluronic acid). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		ハイアラーキー , �'エラル�'ー , �'エラルキー , かいそう (attendance at a funeral, class, fast sailing, forwarding, level, marine plant, petty officer, reburial, reflection, reminiscence, remodelling, reorganization, rout, seaweed, shipping, stampede, stratum). (various references)

Korean		계층구조 (Hierarchies). (various references)

Manx		reiltys ny haspickyn, reiltys ny hagglish, keimoilaght, ard-chlere (princes of the Church). (various references)

Pig Latin		ierarchyhay

Portuguese		hierarquia (hieratic), estrutura hierárquica (hierarchical structure), caminhar rapidamente. (various references)

Romanian		ierarhie (scale). (various references)

Russian		иерархия. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		hijerarhija. (various references)

Spanish		jerarquía (tree). (various references)

Swedish		hierarki. (various references)

Thai		การจั�"ระบบตามลำ�"ับขั้น. (various references)

Turkish		hiyerarşi (pecking order, social order), aşamalı sistem. (various references)

Ukranian		і�"рархія, теократія (theocracy). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Hierarchy

Language	Period	Translations
Greek	700 BCE-300 CE	hierarchia. (various references)
Medieval Latin	700-1500	hierarchia. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Misspellings: Hierarchy

Misspellings
	"Hierarchy" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: heierarchy, heirarch, heirarchy, hiararchy, hieararchy, hiearchy, hieraarchy, hierachy, hierarchey, hierarky, hirarchy, hirearchy, hlierarchy. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Hierarchy"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "hierarchy" (pronounced hī"erÄ'rkē or hī"rÄ'rkē)
4	-Ä' r k ē	matriarchy, oligarchy, patriarchy.
3	-r k ē	Corky, Darkie, malarkey, monarchy, porky, sparky.
4	-Ä' r k ē	matriarchy, oligarchy, patriarchy.
3	-r k ē	Corky, Darkie, malarkey, monarchy, porky, sparky.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Hierarchy

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-c-e-h-h-i-r-r-y"
	-1 letter: hierarch.
	-2 letters: archery, charier.
	-3 letters: achier, archer, cahier, charry, cherry, chirre, racier, richer.
	-4 letters: airer, areic, carer, carry, ceria, chair, chare, charr, chary, chirr, crier, erica, eyrir, hairy, harry, hayer, herry, hirer, racer, reach, ricer, yarer.
	-5 letters: ache, achy, acre, aery, airy, arch, care, carr, char, chay, chia, cire, each, eyra, hair, hare, hear, heir.
	Words containing the letters "a-c-e-h-h-i-r-r-y"
	+5 letters: hierarchically.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.