social hierarchy

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.

Historian Bernard Capp, Emeritus Professor at the University of Warwick, explains that hat etiquette once reinforced social hierarchy.

From Science Daily • May 7, 2026

It becomes “a tool to insert yourself on the social hierarchy and compare yourself to other people, trying to perform for other people, to get the attention of other people.”

From MarketWatch • Nov. 5, 2025

"New arrivals usually start at the bottom of the social hierarchy," she said.

From BBC • Aug. 5, 2025

“That social hierarchy can be applied to gender, sexual preference, nationality, your ethnicity, your religion, class or race,” DuVernay says.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 3, 2024

It is likely that the first British villages in North America, thousands of miles from the House of Lords, would have lost some of the brutally graded social hierarchy that characterized European life.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann