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• warden
  warden

  noun

  a person charged with the care or custody of persons, animals, or things; keeper.
• Warden
  Warden

  noun

  any of several pears having a crisp, firm flesh, used in baking and cooking.

warden

¹ American  

[wawr-dn] / ˈwɔr dn /

noun

• wardens
  plural

1. a person charged with the care or custody of persons, animals, or things; keeper.

   Synonyms:

   superintendent, caretaker, custodian, guard, guardian, warder

2. the chief administrative officer in charge of a prison.

3. any of various public officials charged with superintendence, as over a port or wildlife.

4. air-raid warden.

5. firewarden.

6. (in Connecticut) the chief executive officer of a borough.

7. (formerly) the principal official in a region, town, etc.

8. British.

   1. (initial capital letter) a traditional title of the president or governor of certain schools and colleges.

      Warden of Merton College.

   2. a member of a livery company of the City of London.

9. Canadian. the head of certain county or local councils.

10. a member of the governing body of a guild.

11. a churchwarden.

12. a gatekeeper.

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Warden ² American  

[wawr-dn] / ˈwɔr dn /

noun

British: Archaic.

1. any of several pears having a crisp, firm flesh, used in baking and cooking.

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warden ¹ British  

/ ˈwɔːdən /

noun

1. a person who has the charge or care of something, esp a building, or someone

2. any of various public officials, esp one responsible for the enforcement of certain regulations

3. a person employed to patrol a national park or safari park

4. the chief officer in charge of a prison

5. the principal or president of any of various universities or colleges

6. See churchwarden

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warden ² British  

/ ˈwɔːdən /

noun

1. a variety of pear that has crisp firm flesh and is used for cooking

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• subwarden
  noun
• subwardenship
  noun
• underwarden
  noun
• wardenry
  noun
• wardenship
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• wardens
  plural

Etymology

Origin of warden¹

1175–1225; Middle English wardein < Old French (northeast dial.), equivalent to ward- (root of warder to guard; see ward) + -ein, variant of -ien, -enc < Germanic -ing -ing ³

Origin of Warden²

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English wardoun, wardon(e); of uncertain origin; perhaps from Anglo-French or Anglo-Latin wardō (inflectional stem wardōn-)

Explanation

The person who works at a jail as the boss of all the prison guards is called the warden. A warden's job is to manage a prison — so while she may be uniformed and armed like a guard, her actual tasks may look more like a desk job. The noun warden has traditionally been used to talk about someone in an official supervisory position, especially in British English, but the prison guard definition goes back to the early thirteenth century, when it meant "one who guards." The root is the Old English word weard, "a watchman or sentry."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

warden Warden wardens

McCaslin said she wanted to reach a workable solution with the warden, saying, “I want him to have his discovery. He’s entitled to it.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026

Officials at the Federal Reserve watch long-run inflation expectations closely, because higher expected inflation could be a sign the central bank is losing credibility as a warden of stable prices.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

Retired lorry driver Stephen Doughty, flew into parking rage when he feared he would get a ticket from the lone warden in a market town.

From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026

Prosecutor Helen Tench said the assault had a "detrimental impact" on the traffic warden.

From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026

If I could get people to see that she’s not a threat, or that she was only a threat because of how scared she was, maybe the game warden will have second thoughts?

From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz

But investigators have not yet found documentation showing that permission from Tamil Nadu's Chief Wildlife Warden had been obtained for the animals to be brought into the state, the official said.

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026

“We have production capacity and we are starting to build even ahead” of a final contract, Northrop CEO Kathy Warden said during an earnings call.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

The company has added 20 new manufacturing facilities in the United States over the last two years, according to CEO Kathy Warden.

From Barron's ● Apr. 21, 2026

Warden has decided to ride out the downturn, but his father and brother have cashed out of their crypto holdings.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 31, 2026

The person to whom Warden Hand telephoned was Logan Sanford.

From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

Samuel Adams and John Hancock were both fire wardens.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026

In May, volunteer wardens recorded 427 cases where dogs were inside the exclusion zone and, on just one day in June, 93 breaches were noted.

From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2026

"We didn't do that as assistant wardens, so learning those skills as we go has been something new for us," she added.

From BBC ● May 21, 2026

But in October 2025, Bardsey Island Trust advertised for full-time wardens to live on the island year round.

From BBC ● May 21, 2026

Tally definitely didn’t want to get caught messing around with fire alarms, in case the wardens connected her to a certain incident in New Pretty Town back at the beginning of summer.

From "Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld

Related Words

• administrator
• caretaker
• curator
• superintendent