How to spell hierarchy
hierarchy
Not heirarchy.
The trap
The word hierarchy begins hier-, with I before E, and the misspelling heirarchy borrows the EI of heir. The two look related on the page, but heir is a different word with its own spelling.
IE and EI are easy to swap, so the order has to be known. When the pair says 'ee' it is usually IE, but EI straight after a C that says S (receive), unless the IE came from a Y (policies); when it says 'ay' it is usually EI (eight).
Greek spelling: ch for the k sound
What it means
noun. a system in which people are ranked one above another
Other words with this trap
Background
The conventions each language layer left in English spelling, with their sources, are on where English spelling comes from.
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