dean

• IPA^(key): /diːn/, [diːn], [dĩːn], enPR: dēn

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːn
• Homophones: dene, 'dine, Dean

From Middle English den, deen (“dean”), from Anglo-Norman deen and continental Old French deien (modern French doyen), from Latin decānus. Doublet of doyen.

dean (plural deans)

1. A senior official in a college or university, who may be in charge of a division or faculty (for example, the dean of science) or have some other advisory or disciplinary function (for example, the dean of students).
   • 1995 October, Robert Frost, Richard Poirier, Robert Frost: Collected Poems, Prose, & Plays (LOA #81) (DE-601)374069697: Library of America series)‎, Library of America, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 357:

     Lucretius versus the Lake Poets ' Nature I loved ; and next to Nature , Art . '
     Dean , adult education may seem silly .
     What of it though ? I got some willy - nilly
     The other evening at your college deanery .
     And grateful for it ( Let's not be facetious!) […]

2. A dignitary or presiding officer in certain church bodies, especially an ecclesiastical dignitary, subordinate to a bishop, in charge of a chapter of canons.
3. The senior member of some group of people.

   dean of the diplomatic corps - a country's most senior ambassador

   dean of the House - the longest-serving member of a legislature

   • 1955 October 19, Rex Stout, The Next Witness, Three Witnesses, 94 Bantam, →ISBN, page 67:

     All of the switchboard operators had been parties to it, including Marie Willis. Their dean, Alice Hart, collected […]

• (Head of cathedral chapter): provost

• dean and chapter
• deanery
• deaness
• rural dean

• decanal
• doyen (doublet)

dean (third-person singular simple present deans, present participle deaning, simple past and past participle deaned)

1. (intransitive, rare) To serve as a dean.
2. (transitive, Oxbridge, otherwise rare, informal) To send (a student) to see the dean of a college or university.

Related to den.

dean (plural deans)

1. (Sussex, chiefly in place names) A hill.

dean (plural deans)

1. (Northumbria, chiefly in place names) Alternative form of dene.

• Aden, Dane, Dena, Edna, Enda, Nead, aden-, ande, eDNA, nade

dean

1. inessive singular of de

From Late Latin decānus, from Latin decem (“ten”). Compare Italian decano, Venetian degàn, French doyen.

dean m (plural deans)

1. (religion) dean
2. doyen

• dîs

dean

1. inflection of dar:
   1. third-person plural present subjunctive
   2. third-person plural imperative