層級與層級的頂端
同一座金字塔，兩種看法：一種看整座結構，一種只看最上面那一小塊。
ranked levels · noun · C2
An arrangement of people or things in levels, where some have more power or importance than others.
層級
核心畫面
Picture a pyramid, or a staircase that as it rises: each level sits above another, and the higher you go the fewer people and the more power. What matters is that the levels are ranked — who answers to whom is visible from the shape.
一座金字塔，或一層一層往上收窄的階梯：每一層都在另一層之上，越往上人越少、權力越大。重點不只是「有大有小」，而是這些…更多收起
一座金字塔，或一層一層往上收窄的階梯：每一層都在另一層之上，越往上人越少、權力越大。重點不只是「有大有小」，而是這些層級之間有明確的上下關係——誰對誰負責、誰能決定誰的事，位置一看就清楚。From the word’s history
From Greek hierarkhía, "rule of a high priest" (hieros "sacred" + arkhē "rule"). It first named the ranked orders of the church, and only later stepped outside religion to mean any layered structure.
源自希臘語 hierarkhía，字面是「大祭司的統治」（hieros 神聖的 + arkhē 統治）。這個字原本專講教會的聖職階級——天使的九個等級、主教到神父的層層節制——後來才脫離宗教，變成任何組織的層級結構。金字塔的形狀是從教會搬出來的。
Wiktionary: Late Latin ierarchia < Ancient Greek ἱεραρχία (hierarkhía, "rule of a high priest"), per the entry's attested origin
One branch
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
hierarchynoun/ˈhaɪ.ə.ɹɑː(ɹ).ki/
- 1
A body of authoritative officials organized in nested ranks.
- Gay men and bisexuals were blamed for the [AIDS] epidemic for much the same reason that the church hierarchy in the Middle Ages accused Jewish people of creating bubonic plague by "poisoning the wells."
- The [Washington] Post's proprietor through those turbulent [Watergate] days, Katharine Graham, held a double place in Washington’s hierarchy: at once regal Georgetown hostess and scrappy newshound, ready to hold the establishment to account.
- 2
A social, religious, economic or political system or organization in which people or groups of people are ranked with some superior to others based on their status, authority or some other trait.
- Social defeat arises in strict social hierarchies in which the few dominate the many. Overcrowding exacerbates the many ills of social defeat within these social hierarchies based on dominance.
- 3
Any group of objects ranked so that every one but the topmost is subordinate to a specified one above it.
- ... the surviving portions provide enough detail to outline its principal features: the hierarchy of beings to whom his liturgy was to be addressed (we previously considered Plethon's hierarchy of gods in our examination of his Summary[…]
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。