pecking order

American  

Sometimes peck order

noun

1. Animal Behavior. a dominance hierarchy, seen especially in domestic poultry, that is maintained by one bird pecking another of lower status.

2. a sequence or hierarchy of authority in an organization or social group.

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pecking order British  

noun

1. Also called: peck order.  a natural hierarchy in a group of gregarious birds, such as domestic fowl

2. any hierarchical order, as among people in a particular group

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pecking order Cultural  

1. A hierarchy within a social group or community, in which those members at the top assume positions of leadership, authority, and power. The expression originated from a description of social behavior among chickens, which attack each other by pecking to establish dominance.

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pecking order Idioms  

1. The hierarchy of authority in a group, as in On a space mission, the astronauts have a definite pecking order. This expression, invented in the 1920s by biologists who discovered that domestic poultry maintain such a hierarchy with one bird pecking another of lower status, was transferred to human behavior in the 1950s.

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Etymology

Origin of pecking order

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pecking order

Deutsche Bank analysts say the four startups are in the third tier of China’s AI chip vendor pecking order, with Huawei Technologies in the lead.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

Insult humor among male friends can be about bonding or establishing a pecking order.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026

Jesus has fallen down the pecking order in recent seasons at Arsenal due to injury issues, as well as Kai Havertz and Viktor Gyokeres being the preferred central strikers at the club.

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026

In the Olympic hospitality pecking order, the premium lounges beat the leisure lounges and the hospitality pavilions, which provide shared havens for followers of multiple sports.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026

In the process they have overturned the old social pecking order in which “Episcopalian,” for example, was a code word for upper class, and “fundamentalist” or “evangelical” shorthand for lower.

From "Class Matters" by The New York Times

Related Words

• food chain
• hierarchy
• power structure
• social structure