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.
Milton.
Hear it pronounced