Hierarchy

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Hierarchy

A group of people who form an ascending chain of power or authority.

Officers in a government, for example, form an escalating series of ranks or degrees of power, with each rank subject to the authority of the one on the next level above. In a majority of hierarchical arrangements, there are a larger number of people at the bottom than at the top.

Originally, the term was used to mean government by a body of priests. Currently, a hierarchy is used to denote any body of individuals arranged or classified according to capacity, authority, position, or rank.

HIERARCHY, eccl. law. A hierarchy signified, originally, power of the priest; for in the beginning of societies, the priests were entrusted with all the power but, among the priests themselves, there were different degrees of power and authority, at the summit of which was the sovereign pontiff, and this was called the hierarchy. Now it signifies, not so much the power of the priests as the border of power.

A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.

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References in periodicals archive ?

Hierarchically nanostructured hematite hollow spheres assembled by nanosheets through a microwave-assisted solvothermal route exhibited superior photocatalytic activities in the degradation of salicylic acid [80].

Hierarchical structures from inorganic nanocrystal self-assembly for photoenergy utilization

This part of the Article very briefly examines the existing law of deference, which is supposed to be uniform across courts, and then, more importantly, shows how the rationales supporting deference actually support a hierarchically variable regime.

Hierarchically variable deference to agency interpretations

Following these steps, one or more conceptual trees are produced, which link together hierarchically the examined Wikipedia categories according to their respective hierarchical structure in WordNet.

Exploring lexicographic ontologies for hierarchically organizing the Greek Wikipedia articles

For example, in a hierarchically ordered system like the mammal, the nervous (sub)system is dependent upon the respiratory and circular (sub)systems, primarily for a process of oxygen transfer to the nerve cells and brain cells of the nervous (sub)system.

Life and the homeostatic organization view of biological phenomena

She believes that the high percentage of keyword searching (in contrast to selections from hierarchically organized subject directories) undertaken by the students was due to the factual nature of the task they were given, with the assignment containing concrete keywords.

Interface design, web portals, and children

Second, identities give meaning to the self and are organized hierarchically from the most salient to the least salient.

Identity and motivation predict behavior and intention of organ donation

Perhaps the local bishop could issue a badge or pin or something so the eucharistic ministers could know that the communicant was hierarchically certified.

A modest proposal

Using advanced machine-learning techniques, with only a few examples it quickly learns by itself how to hierarchically classify documents in existing categories.

Software that automatically indexes, categorises and posts electronic documents

There was no hierarchically directed pastoral plan that acknowledged the diversity of religious practices of Italian migrants.

Anthony Paganoni. Valiant Struggles and Benign Neglect: Italians, Church and Religious Societies in Diaspora. The Australian Experience from 1950 to 2000

Here we arc in the twenty-first century, and a considerable part of humanity continues to live subjected to hierarchically dominated social structures of ancient origins, which perpetuate the worst sorts of inequities.

It's not how many we are, it's how we're organized

Detecting a new agent in large pooled samples would thus be repeated in smaller, localized pools that had been combined hierarchically to generate the larger pool (32).

Global screening for human viral pathogens. (Perspectives)

Species derive from a common genus and, within a taxonomy, are hierarchically represented according to their essential characteristics and differences.