tier

¹ American  

[teer] / tɪər /

noun

1. one of a series of rows or ranks rising one behind or above another, as of seats in an amphitheater, boxes in a theater, guns in a man-of-war, or oars in an ancient galley.

2. one of a number of galleries, as in a theater.

3. a layer; level; stratum.

   The wedding cake had six tiers.

   All three tiers of the firm's management now report to one director.

4. Australian. a mountain range.

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verb (used with object)

1. to arrange in tiers.

verb (used without object)

1. to rise in tiers.

tier ² American  

[tahy-er] / ˈtaɪ ər /

noun

1. a person or thing that ties.

2. Nautical. a short rope or band for securing a furled sail.

3. New England. a child's apron or pinafore.

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tier ¹ British  

/ tɪə /

noun

1. one of a set of rows placed one above and behind the other, such as theatre seats

2. 1. a layer or level

   2. ( in combination )

      a three-tier cake

3. a rank, order, or row

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verb

1. to be or arrange in tiers

tier ² British  

/ ˈtaɪə /

noun

1. a person or thing that ties

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Etymology

Origin of tier¹

First recorded in 1560–70; earlier also tire, tyre, teare, from Middle French, Old French tire, tiere “order, row, rank,” from Germanic; compare Old English, Old Saxon tīr, Old High German zēri “glory, adornment”

Origin of tier²

First recorded in 1625–35; tie + -er ¹

Example Sentences

With additional tiers, the models show up to a twelve fold improvement on real AI workloads, including workloads derived from Meta's open source LLaMA model.

From Science Daily

Swansea are currently 19th in the English second tier and travel to leaders Coventry in their next match on Friday.

From Barron's

This included promising a mayor for every region and merging areas where there are currently two tiers of local authority by 2028.

From BBC

This year, the conference’s highest tier of sponsors included quantitative trading firms like Jane Street and Susquehanna that were searching for bright AI minds that might give them an edge in financial markets.

From The Wall Street Journal

But on Friday in Miami, that sideshow collides with boxing's top tier as Paul faces two-time heavyweight world champion and Olympic gold medallist Anthony Joshua.

From BBC

Related Words

• category
• layer
• row