dean

UK/diːn/US/diːn/

nounB2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechneutral

Other forms: deans

A dean is the head of a university faculty or college. The dean of the faculty, see the dean, appointed dean.

In a cathedral the dean runs the place under the bishop, and the phrase dean and chapter names the governing body. The Latin behind it meant a leader of ten, from the Roman army.

Definitions of dean

1noundeanThe head of a university faculty or college.B2
“The dean of the medical school welcomed the new students in the great hall.”

dean is a head.

Where it comes from

Latin decanus means a leader of ten, from decem, ten.

Latin
decānus
Old French
deien
Anglo-Norman
deen
Middle English
den
English, today
dean

Built from

deen · Middle English — dean

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Academic English

Practise this word

dean in the wild

In the United States and Canada, deans are usually university professors who serve as the heads of a university's academic divisions or constituent colleges.
Dean (education)
In the United States, the title of dean is sometimes used in private schools.
Dean (education)
A dean, in an ecclesiastical context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy.
Dean (Christianity)
A DEAN, AND A CHAPTER ALSO CHAPTER III.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood· Charles Dickens

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

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