tiers

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of tier.

   The theater's seats rise in steep tiers toward the back wall.

   The new plan offers three pricing tiers, from basic to premium.

   Note

   The plural usually counts levels: seats rising in steep tiers, a plan with three pricing tiers. The same spelling also counts people who tie things, such as fly tiers at a fishing show, and in South Australia and Tasmania the tiers are ranges of hills, typically forested. After he or she, the word is the layering verb instead.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of tier.

   The designer tiers the seating so that every guest can see the stage.

   The storage software automatically tiers rarely used data to slower disks.

   Note

   Every use of the verb takes an object: a designer tiers the seating, a storage system tiers its data. The computing use is the exact one: data moves from one storage medium to another according to how often it is accessed, so rarely used files are tiered down to slower disks while busy ones stay close at hand.

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