hier

n. [ LL. hierarcha, Gr. &unr_;; "iero`s sacred (akin to Skr. ishiras vigorous, fresh, blooming) + &unr_; leader, ruler, fr. &unr_; to lead, rule: cf. F. hiérarque.] One who has high and controlling authority in sacred things; the chief of a sacred order; as, princely hierarchs. Milton.

{ } a. Pertaining to a hierarch. “The great hierarchal standard.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. hiérarchique. ] Of or pertaining to a hierarchy; ordered in a hierarchy. -- Hi`er*arch`ic*al*ly, adv. Syn. -- hierarchical, hierarchal. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Pertaining to a transitive relation between objects by which they may be ordered into a hierarchy; as, a hierarchical relation. [ PJC ]

n. The principles or authority of a hierarchy. [ 1913 Webster ]

The more dominant hierarchism of the West. Milman. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Hierarchies [ Gr. 'ierarchi`a: cf. F. hiérarchie. ] 1. Dominion or authority in sacred things. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A body of officials disposed organically in ranks and orders each subordinate to the one above it; a body of ecclesiastical rulers. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A form of government administered in the church by patriarchs, metropolitans, archbishops, bishops, and, in an inferior degree, by priests. Shipley. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A rank or order of holy beings. [ 1913 Webster ]

Standards and gonfalons . . . for distinction serve
Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees. Milton.

5. (Math., Logic, Computers) Any group of objects ranked so that every one but the topmost is subordinate to a specified one above it; also, the entire set of ordering relations between such objects. The ordering relation between each object and the one above is called a hierarchical relation. Classification schemes, as in biology, usually form hierarchies. [ PJC ]

a. [ L. hieraticus, Gr. "ieratiko`s; akin to "iero`s sacred: cf. F. hiératique. ] Consecrated to sacred uses; sacerdotal; pertaining to priests. [ 1913 Webster ]

Hieratic character, a mode of ancient Egyptian writing; a modified form of hieroglyphics, tending toward a cursive hand and formerly supposed to be the sacerdotal character, as the demotic was supposed to be that of the people. [ 1913 Webster ]

It was a false notion of the Greeks that of the three kinds of writing used by the Egyptians, two -- for that reason called hieroglyphic and hieratic -- were employed only for sacred, while the third, the demotic, was employed for secular, purposes. No such distinction is discoverable on the more ancient Egyptian monuments; bur we retain the old names founded on misapprehension. W. H. Ward (Johnson's Cyc.). [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Gr. "iero`s sacred + &unr_; to be strong, rule.] Government by ecclesiastics; a hierarchy. Jefferson.

{ } n. [ Cf. F. hiéroglyphe. See Hieroglyphic, a. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A sacred character; a character used in picture writing, as of the ancient Egyptians, Mexicans, etc. Specifically, in the plural, the picture writing of the ancient Egyptian priests. It is made up of three, or, as some say, four classes of characters: first, the hieroglyphic proper, or figurative, in which the representation of the object conveys the idea of the object itself; second, the ideographic, consisting of symbols representing ideas, not sounds, as an ostrich feather is a symbol of truth; third, the phonetic, consisting of symbols employed as syllables of a word, or as letters of the alphabet, having a certain sound, as a hawk represented the vowel a. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Any character or figure which has, or is supposed to have, a hidden or mysterious significance; hence, any unintelligible or illegible character or mark. [ Colloq. ]