hierarchyhi·er·ar·chy /ˈhaɪrɑːki-ɑːr-/ noun (plural hierarchies)1[countableC, uncountableU]HUMAN RESOURCES an organization or structure in which the staff are organized in levels and the people at one level have authority over those below themMany companies have restructured theirorganizational hierarchies.
the key men in the company hierarchy
→ see also Maslow's hierarchy of needs 2[countableC]COMPUTING a structure in which files, information etc are organized in levels, each one being reached from the previous oneEach disk is divided into a hierarchy of directories.
—hierarchical adjectiveadjResearch shows that hierarchical organisations are slow to respond to change.
a hierarchical structure of files
—hierarchically adverbadvThe police bureaucracy is organized hierarchically.