dean
dean
1 American
[deen]
/ din /
noun
-
deans
plural
-
Education.
-
the head of a faculty, school, or administrative division in a university or college.
the dean of admissions.
-
an official in an American college or secondary school having charge of student personnel services, such as counseling or discipline.
the dean of men.
-
the official in charge of undergraduate students at an English university.
-
-
Ecclesiastical.
-
the head of the chapter of a cathedral or a collegiate church.
-
Also called vicar forane. a priest in the Roman Catholic Church appointed by a bishop to take care of the affairs of a division of a diocese.
-
-
the senior member, in length of service, of any group, organization, profession, etc..
the dean of lexicographers.
Dean
2
American
[deen]
/ din /
noun
-
James (Byron), 1931–55, U.S. actor.
-
Jay Hanna Dizzy, 1911–74, U.S. baseball pitcher.
-
a male given name: from the Old English family name meaning “valley.”
dean
1
British
/ diːn /
noun
-
the chief administrative official of a college or university faculty
-
(at Oxford and Cambridge universities) a college fellow with responsibility for undergraduate discipline
-
Church of England the head of a chapter of canons and administrator of a cathedral or collegiate church
-
RC Church the cardinal bishop senior by consecration and head of the college of cardinals See also rural dean
Dean
2
British
/ diːn /
noun
-
Christopher. See Torvill and Dean
-
James ( Byron ). 1931–55, US film actor, who became a cult figure; his films include East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause (both 1955). He died in a car crash
Dean
3
British
/ diːn /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of dean
1300–50; Middle English deen < Anglo-French deen, dean, Old French deien < Late Latin decānus chief of ten, equivalent to Latin dec ( em ) ten + -ānus -an
Explanation
A dean is the head of a specific area of a college, university, or private school. When you're thinking about studying in Madagascar for a semester, you might make an appointment to talk to the study abroad dean. Individual colleges within a larger university system often have separate deans, like the dean of the medical school and the dean of arts and sciences. Within the college, there might also be a dean for each separate year, like the sophomore class dean, and deans for different offices or departments. Dean comes from the Latin decanus, first "commander of ten soldiers," and then "head of ten monks in a monastery," from the Greek word for "ten," deka.
Vocabulary lists containing dean
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Mijal Bitton is dean of the Maimonides Jewish Leadership Institute and a sociologist who directed the landmark National Study of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews in the U.S. at New York University.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026
People in Upper Midwest states might pay less, but households in Southern and Gulf Coast states might end up paying more, said Alexis Abramson, dean of the Columbia Climate School.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 10, 2026
Danny Stockli, dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences and a co-author of the study, said zircon U-Pb dating offers one of the most accurate ways to determine when events occurred deep in Earth's past.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 4, 2026
He taught at the University of Washington and became a dean at Rutgers University.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026
A former teacher, journalist, and dean of women at Northwestern University, Willard was both a visionary and a powerful reformer.
From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler
But the entries to Eurovision Asia -- which unlike the original is organised by commercial broadcasters -- are mostly love songs, lamented Dean Vuletic, an author and expert on Eurovision.
From Barron's ● Nov. 8, 2026
His project, rather, is an examination of the deaths of two hikers, Dean Pommerville and Eric Straughter, in the 1.3 million acre Gifford Pinchot National Forest in December 2024.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
H. Dean Steward, a defense attorney who filed a renewed motion in August challenging Essayli’s authority, called the decision “a victory for the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
The property was sold to luxury developer Dean McKillen, son of Irish businessman Paddy McKillen.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2026
The crowd parted when I came in and the Dean of Studies handed me the telephone.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
She says she has “asked the deans to convene students and faculty to establish classroom principles that foster intellectual openness.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 19, 2026
As part of the role, monarchs are responsible for approving the appointment of archbishops, bishops and deans on the recommendation of the prime minister.
From BBC ● Mar. 22, 2026
As the State Bar homed in on the problems with Meazure Learning, deans of some of California’s top law schools noted that the issues were not confined to the technology.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2025
Law school deans, he said, were motivated to work with the state to come up with new and fair ways to assess aspiring attorneys’ competency.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2025
The cost of cyclotrons already was raising the hackles of academic deans and presidents.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
