dean

noun \ ˈdēn \

|Updated on: 17 Jul 2018

Examples: dean in a Sentence

Definition of dean

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 1

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dean

intransitive verb

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deanship

play \-ˌship\ noun

See dean defined for English-language learners

See dean defined for kids

Examples of dean in a Sentence

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

Recent Examples of dean from the Web

Juan Carlos Espinosa, dean of the FIU Honors College, said more than 2,300 students are enrolled in the program and are required to apply for admission.

— rene rodriguez, miamiherald, "Jorge and Darlene Pérez donate $1 million to FIU Honors College," 13 July 2018
EDUCATION Lawrence University named Terra Winston associate dean of spiritual and religious life.

— Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "New hires, promotions at Wisconsin companies," 12 July 2018
Part of that decline could be due to many churches’ failure to connect young people with church leadership and activities, said Brent Peterson, the dean of Northwest Nazarene University’s School of Theology and Christian Ministries.

— nicole blanchard, idahostatesman, "‘The Mormon exception’: Idaho’s largest religion bucks trends affecting Christianity," 12 July 2018
Still, students with visas who are re-entering the country to return to school should not encounter problems, said Kevin R. Johnson, dean of the School of Law at the University of California, Davis.

— New York Times, "Trump’s Travel Ban: How It Works and Who Is Affected," 1 July 2018
There is no timeline requirement for when the Senate must vote on a nominee, said John Trasviña, dean of the University of San Francisco’s law school.

— joe garofoli, SFChronicle.com, "Feinstein: Wait till after midterms to replace Anthony Kennedy," 27 June 2018
Bobby Braun, dean of engineering at the University of Colorado in Boulder and NASA’s former chief technologist, thinks it’s a good idea because FFRDCs have much more flexibility.

— insider staff report, Science | AAAS, "Trump’s plan to reshuffle government strikes familiar notes," 21 June 2018
The search was led by the UC Provost Office and chaired by Greer Glazer, dean of the College of Nursing.

— kate murphy, Cincinnati.com, "University of Cincinnati hires new dean of College-Conservatory of Music," 5 June 2018
On April 18, while Wilson was still a candidate in Utah, university trustees appointed Green, dean of the university's College of Buchtel Arts and Sciences, as interim president.

— karen farkas, cleveland.com, "Matthew Wilson is University of Akron president in name only, interim President John Green takes over," 7 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'dean.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of dean

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

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 13th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year

dean Synonyms

Dean

biographical name \ ˈdēn \

Definition of Dean

Sir Patrick 1909–1994 British diplomat

DEAN Defined for English Language Learners

dean

noun

Definition of dean for English Language Learners

: a person who is in charge of one of the parts of a university (such as a college or school)
: a person whose job is to give advice to the students in a college or high school and to make sure that they obey the school's rules
: a person who has more experience in or knowledge about a particular profession, subject, etc., than anyone or almost anyone