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I'm looking for a word that describes that there is a hierarchical difference between two objects that are of a different rank. For example, if object A is "School" and object B is "Student", then B is below A in the data hierarchy. Can this be described with a single word or short phrase?

Sample Sentence: "Two entities are _______ in the hierarchy"

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    I'm not sure if this is the right answer so I'll put it as a comment; "hyponymy, subordination - the semantic relation of being subordinate or belonging to a lower rank or class" (from The Free Dictionary by Farlex). These relations are called semantic relations and there are meronymy, holonymy etc. to maybe suit your needs.
    – Yiğit Sever
    Commented Jun 5, 2019 at 18:36
  • Hyponymy seems to point to two objects that are of the same class or type, however in my case objects on the hierarchy can be of difference types. While I don't think it suits my needs it's very interesting, thanks for the reply! I think the literal definition of "subordinate" is more suited to my needs, however subordinate tends to point to an hierarchy of authority.
    – user3457834
    Commented Jun 5, 2019 at 18:52
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    I looked further and found that "X" is a meronym of "Y" if Xs are members of Y(s). (from Wikipedia). I too think that subordinate feels too authoritative.
    – Yiğit Sever
    Commented Jun 5, 2019 at 19:33
  • Very cool, I think meronym would work in my original example, depending on how you define a School. If you consider a School as all the working elements that make up the institution instead of just the building then I would say Student could be a meronym of School. However, if you consider Principal vs Student you wouldn't consider Student a meronym of Principal, since the student isn't physically a part of the principal. Salesman vs Customer is an interesting example, a Salesman can sell to many Customers, but the Customer would not be considered a meronym or a subordinate to the Salesman.
    – user3457834
    Commented Jun 5, 2019 at 20:06
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    They have a parent-child relationship.
    – aparente001
    Commented Jun 6, 2019 at 4:37

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Since the sentence already includes "hierarchy", any dissimilarity between entities would presume a difference in rank. I would therefore think that dissimilar, unequal, disparate, or the like would work, without resorting to five-dollar words like meronym and hyponymy. The phrase "of different rank", used in the original question seems fine to me.

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