dean

noun

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
dean intransitive verb
deanship noun

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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Davis has since worked as a professor, a dean and a university president. Elissa Nadworny, NPR, 24 Mar. 2025 Another dean, Sinclair, took Lyle into an office to wait for Anderson, who still couldn’t be reached, according to the complaint. Jessica Seaman, The Denver Post, 21 Mar. 2025 Free marketeers will advise deans to cut whatever course can’t fill a giant lecture hall or lead to lucrative research grants. Lydia Kiesling, TIME, 20 Mar. 2025 Andrea Picchi, dean of Kinesiology, Health & Athletics, said the importance of that cannot be overstated. Advertorial, Orange County Register, 19 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for dean

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

Time Traveler
The first known use of dean was in the 13th century

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Dean.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dean. Accessed 4 Apr. 2025.

Kids Definition

dean

noun
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 noun

Biographical Definition

Dean

biographical name

Sir Patrick 1909–1994 British diplomat

More from Merriam-Webster on dean

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