# tier

Pronunciation: say "TEER" US /tɪɚ/, UK /tɪə/

## Noun

1. A row or rank of things, especially one placed above or below others.
   - Simple: A row of things, often one of several rows set one above another.
   - _The theater's boxes rise in three gilded tiers above the orchestra seats._
   - _Vines grew on each tier of the terraced hillside._
2. A level in a system ranked from top to bottom, such as a grade of quality or a layer of society.
   - Simple: One level in a group of levels that go from high to low.
   - _Under the new pay scale, nurses move up a tier after five years of service._
   - _Both cities sit in the top tier of global financial centers._
6. One horizontal row of panels running across a comic strip.
   - Simple: One row of pictures that goes across a comic strip.
   - _The cartoonist designed the Sunday strip so its top tier could be dropped by newspapers short on space._
   - _Each tier of the strip moves the story forward by a single beat._
7. A person who ties things, such as knots. (pronounced: US say "TY-er" /ˈtaɪ.ɚ/; UK say "TY-uh" /ˈtaɪ.ə/)
   - Simple: A person who ties knots or other things.
   - _A skilled tier can finish a dry fly in under five minutes._
   - _The sailing instructor was a patient tier of knots, showing each loop slowly._
8. A device or other thing that ties something. (pronounced: US say "TY-er" /ˈtaɪ.ɚ/; UK say "TY-uh" /ˈtaɪ.ə/)
   - Simple: A thing or tool that ties things.
   - _On the farm, the hay baler's automatic tier knots twine around every bale._
   - _A battery-powered rebar tier lets one worker fasten crossing bars far faster than by hand._
9. A range of hills or mountains, typically forested, especially in South Australia or Tasmania; also, a single mountain. *(Australia)*
   - Simple: In Australia, a line of hills or mountains, often covered in forest, or a single mountain.
   - _Cloud sat low on the tier all morning, hiding the forest on its upper slopes._
   - _Settlers cleared the lower slopes but left the timbered tiers above the valley untouched._

## Verb

3. To arrange or build something in layers, one level above another.
   - Simple: To put things in layers, one on top of another.
   - _Landscapers tiered the steep backyard into three planted terraces._
   - _Architects often tier the seats of a lecture hall so everyone can see the board._
4. To fall or spread downward in a series of overlapping layers or stages.
   - Simple: To hang or fall down in rows that overlap each other.
   - _Layers of chiffon tier from the waist to the hem, each one overlapping the next._
   - _The roof's slate shingles tiered down toward the gutter like fish scales._
5. To move data from one storage medium to another according to how often it is accessed, as a way of optimizing the system.
   - Simple: In computing, to move data to a different kind of storage depending on how often it is used.
   - _The storage array automatically tiers hot data onto flash and pushes cold data to spinning disks._
   - _Administrators can tier rarely accessed logs to object storage to cut costs._

## Noun

10. An apron made for a child to wear. *(archaic)* (pronounced: US say "TY-er" /ˈtaɪ.ɚ/; UK say "TY-uh" /ˈtaɪ.ə/)
   - Simple: An apron that a child wears.
   - _She sewed a cotton tier for each of her children to wear in the kitchen._
   - _His little sister wore a tier over her dress to keep it clean while she painted._

## Origin

**Meanings 7–8, 10** — Formed from tie + -er.
**Meanings 1–6, 9** — From Middle French tier, from Old French tire (“rank, sequence, order, kind”), probably from tirer (“to draw, draw out”). Alternatively, it may come from a Germanic source related to Middle English tir (“honor, glory, power, rule”), Old English tīr (“glory, honor, fame”) and Old Norse tírr (“glory, honor, renown”).

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/tier (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).