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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

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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-)

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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

Assistant warden Tara McEvoy-Wilding said 2026 had been eye-opening and the "brown, sad and crispy" vegetation was a visual reminder of how dry it had been.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

Black Point Beach Association has a handyman to maintain signs and locks; a warden monitors the beach to enforce its rules.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026

"She referred to them being in prison, on parole when playing and Morgan was the prison warden."

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

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

The jails were full of them, a warden later would testify.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

The state's Chief Wildlife Warden Rakesh Kumar Dogra told BBC Tamil that individuals could keep a lar gibbon if they had the permits and documentation required by law.

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026

Northrop Grumman NOC -1.24%decrease; red down pointing triangle logged a jump in profit and higher sales in the first quarter, amid what Chief Executive Kathy Warden called an unprecedented global demand environment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026

Results underscored “our ability to deliver in today’s unprecedented global demand environment,” said CEO Kathy Warden in a news release.

From Barron's ● Apr. 21, 2026

Will Warden had similarly high expectations not so long ago.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 31, 2026

Stanley remembered Mr. Pendanski telling the Warden that Zero was a ward of the state.

From "Holes" by Louis Sachar

"The season has been a difficult one for the dedicated wardens and volunteers who work tirelessly to protect the colony," Wood said.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026

For Pete Drew and the other wardens, looking after the environment is a community effort, often powered by cake.

From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026

Bronwyn Larry, head of communications for the park authority, said this was not the first instance of wardens discovering "abandoned 'wild camps'".

From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026

With the help of local volunteers and wardens, who monitor breeding sites 24 hours a day, the future of the little tern is looking much brighter than it did back in 1986.

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026

A strong place and wonderful was Isengard, and long it had been beautiful; and there great lords had dwelt, the wardens of Gondor upon the West, and wise men that watched the stars.

From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien

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