hierarchize

From hierarchy +‎ -ize.

hierarchize (third-person singular simple present hierarchizes, present participle hierarchizing, simple past and past participle hierarchized)

1. (intransitive) To establish a hierarchy.
   • 1979, Michel Foucault, translated by Alan Sheridan, Discipline and Punish, page 183:

     It operates not by differentiating individuals, but by specifying acts according to a number of general categories; not by hierarchizing but quite simply by bringing into play the binary opposition of the permitted and the forbidden.

2. (transitive) To arrange in a hierarchy.
   • 2018 January, Nikita Sleptcov, “Political Homophobia as a State Strategy in Russia”, in Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective‎^[1], volume 12, number 1, page 146:

     The state hierarchizes sexuality by defining homosexuality as an influence that corrupts minors. Such a discourse produces a notion of the correct sexual behavior that transcends into the political realm, reinforcing the heteronationalistic nature of the nation-building.

• hierarchization