hierarch
Americannoun
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a person who rules or has authority in sacred matters; high priest.
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a person having high position or considerable authority.
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one of a body of officials or minor priests in certain ancient Greek temples.
noun
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a person in a position of high priestly authority
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a person holding high rank in a religious hierarchy
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a person at a high level in a hierarchy
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of hierarch
1480–90; < Medieval Latin hierarcha < Greek hierárchēs steward of sacred rites, equivalent to hier- hier- + -archēs -arch
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“I had the honor of knowing a hierarch who did not hesitate to directly express his opinion, regardless of whether this would displease his interlocutor or even a section of society,” Anastasiades said.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 12, 2022
Those include Bartholomew Samaras, a key confidante of the patriarch; Emmanuel Adamakis, an influential hierarch in the church; and Elpidophoros Lambriniadis, who heads a prestigious seminary on the Turkish island of Halki.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 27, 2018
No human, from the greenest convert to the most supreme hierarch, can “lower the bar.”
From Washington Post ● May 4, 2018
The Church of England's second ranking hierarch, the Archbishop of York, spoke too of Germany.
From Time Magazine Archive
He was no ordinary scholar, this man, but the apotheosis of scholars: the most famous personage in Zosma, save the queen and the hierarch, and the most popular, bar none.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
