Word.ws English Dictionary

Chomsky hierarchy

/ˈt͡ʃɒm.ski ˈhaɪ.(ə).ɹɑː(ɹ).ki/

Chomsky hierarchy noun: a containment hierarchy of classes of formal grammars. From least to most specialized, the classes are: recursively enumerable, context-sensitive, context-free, and regular.

chomsky hierarchy: a containment hierarchy of classes of formal grammars. From least to most specialized, the classes...
Image: J. Finkelstein, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

Chomsky hierarchy (plural Chomsky hierarchies)

  1. A containment hierarchy of classes of formal grammars. From least to most specialized, the classes are: recursively enumerable, context-sensitive, context-free, and regular.

Forms of Chomsky hierarchy

pluralChomsky hierarchies

Origin of Chomsky hierarchy

Described by linguist Noam Chomsky in 1956.

Questions about Chomsky hierarchy

What does Chomsky hierarchy mean?
Chomsky hierarchy means a containment hierarchy of classes of formal grammars. From least to most specialized, the classes are: recursively enumerable, context-sensitive, context-free, and regular.
What part of speech is Chomsky hierarchy?
Chomsky hierarchy is a noun.
How do you pronounce Chomsky hierarchy?
Chomsky hierarchy is pronounced /ˈt͡ʃɒm.ski ˈhaɪ.(ə).ɹɑː(ɹ).ki/.
What is the plural of Chomsky hierarchy?
The plural of Chomsky hierarchy is Chomsky hierarchies.

Words near Chomsky hierarchy in the dictionary

  1. chomps down on
  2. chompy
  3. Chomskian
  4. Chomsky
  5. Chomsky hierarchies
  6. Chomsky hierarchy
  7. Chomsky Normal Form
  8. Chomskyan
  9. Chomskyanism
  10. Chomskyans
  11. Chomskyist

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Chomsky hierarchy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Chomsky hierarchy.wav.

Cite this entry: “Chomsky hierarchy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chomsky_hierarchy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.