hierarchal

adj : classified according to various criteria into successive

levels or layers; "it has been said that only a

hierarchical society with a leisure class at the top

can produce works of art"; "in her hierarchical set of

values honesty comes first" [syn: {hierarchical}, {hierarchic}]

[ant: {nonhierarchical}]

hierarchy

An organisation with few things, or one thing, at the top and

with several things below each other thing. An inverted tree

structure. Examples in computing include a directory

hierarchy where each directory may contain files or other

directories; a hierarchical {network} (see {hierarchical

routing}), a {class hierarchy} in {object-oriented

programming}.

(1994-10-11)