dean

noun

ˈdēn 

1

a

: the head of the chapter of a collegiate or cathedral church

b

: a Roman Catholic priest who supervises one district of a diocese

2

a

: the head of a division, faculty, college, or school of a university

b

: a college or secondary school administrator in charge of counseling and disciplining students

3

: doyen sense 1

dean intransitive verb

deanship

ˈdēn-ˌship 

noun

Synonyms of dean

• elder
• veteran
• nestor
• doyen
• elder statesman
• éminence grise
• senior

Examples of dean in a Sentence

She's the dean of the university's business school.

the dean of liberal arts

Recent Examples on the Web

Before joining Salk, Joyce was director of the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation and earlier was dean of faculty at Scripps Research. —Noah Lyons, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 May 2026

Dean Evan Yionoulis is ending her eight-year tenure at the school, with an interim leadership team, led by former provost Ara Guzelimian and artistic adviser Laura Linney taking over as the search for a new dean begins. —Caitlin Huston, HollywoodReporter, 25 May 2026

Aleksandar Tomic, an economist and the associate dean for strategy, innovation, and technology at Boston College, told Fortune SpaceX’s prospectus leaves much up to the imagination. —Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez, Fortune, 24 May 2026

Felicia Townsend, dean of the school, will serve as the moderator. —Melinda Moore, Chicago Tribune, 22 May 2026

Word History

Etymology

Middle English deen, from Anglo-French deen, deien, from Late Latin decanus chief of ten, from Greek dekanos, from deka ten — more at ten

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing dean

• dean's list
• rural dean
• sub-dean

Rhymes for dean

• bean
• bein
• bien
• bouin
• clean
• deen
• diene
• gene
• glean
• jean
• keen
• lien

Kids Definition

dean

noun

ˈdēn 

1

: the head of the chapter of a cathedral church

2

a

: the head of a division, faculty, college, or school of a university

b

: a college or secondary school administrator in charge of counseling or disciplining students

3

: the senior member of a group

the dean of the diplomatic corps

deanship

-ˌship 

noun

Biographical Definition

Dean

biographical name

ˈdēn 

Sir Patrick 1909–1994 British diplomat