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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Hierarchal

Hierarchal \Hi"er*arch`al\, Hierarchic \Hi`er*arch"ic\, a. Pertaining to a hierarch. ``The great hierarchal standard.''
--Milton.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
hierarchal

1640s, from hierarch + -al (1).

Wiktionary
hierarchal

a. Relating to a hierarch. alt. Relating to a hierarch.

WordNet
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]

Usage examples of "hierarchal".

Tribalism worked well for them for millions of years, but there came a time when they decided to experiment with a new social organization (called civilization) that was hierarchal rather than tribal.

Has there never arisen a tribe that has “gone hierarchal,” where the leader has made himself into a despot?

The tribal way isn’t the right way, it’s just a way that worked for millions of years, in contrast to the hierarchal way, which has brought us face to face with extinction after a mere ten thousand years.

The old argument that “human nature” could never behave in anything but a feudal economic hierarchal manner disappeared like a mist the moment people were enfranchised in their work, and the capital created by generations of labor turned over to the ownership of the collective, and run by the people who operate it.

So great was the hopes of the Source Indivisible for Man that the command came down the hierarchal circuits: In your own image, let them be made.

To one side, the area for preparation and serving of food was fairly standard, and the hierarchal placement of tables for officers, ratings, and unrated crew fit UET's normal distribution.

She suspected she was being transferred to someone still higher along the hierarchal chain.