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

The No. 55 draft pick in 2024, Bronny has surpassed Dalton Knecht, the 17th pick in that same draft, in the Lakers’ pecking order.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 28, 2026

For decades, chicken thighs rated so low in the national pecking order that U.S. poultry producers unloaded much of their dark-meat yield to hungry markets abroad in Russia, Mexico, and across Asia.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 19, 2026

The artificial-intelligence trade is upending the long-standing pecking order of Big Tech valuations as investors hunt for the next big winners and losers.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 19, 2026

"You can play once or twice for your country, struggle to pick up a contract and then slip down the pecking order."

From BBC • Feb. 13, 2026

Put ten people in a room and a pecking order soon emerges.

From "Class Matters" by The New York Times

Related Words

• food chain
• hierarchy
• power structure
• social structure