dean

noun

ˈdēn 

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 sense 1

dean intransitive verb

deanship

ˈdēn-ˌship 

noun

Synonyms of dean

• elder
• veteran
• nestor
• doyen
• elder statesman
• éminence grise
• senior

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

Pollack is a professor of law and the associate dean for faculty development at Cardozo School of Law. —Michael Pollack, New York Daily News, 1 Mar. 2026

Applications to San Jose State University’s software engineering master’s program fell 40% for the coming school year, and undergraduate applications dropped 16%, said Sheryl Ehrman, dean of the school’s College of Engineering. —Ethan Baron, Mercury News, 1 Mar. 2026

Acosta, who signed off on Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement, had left government by 2011, and was working as the law school dean at Florida International University. —Julie K. Brown, Miami Herald, 26 Feb. 2026

The National Endowment for the Humanities also invested $10 million in the school to hire 16 new faculty and launch the new majors, the dean said in a previous interview. —Lily Kepner, Austin American Statesman, 24 Feb. 2026

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

Phrases Containing dean

• dean's list
• rural dean
• sub-dean

Rhymes for dean

• bean
• bein
• bien
• bouin
• chine
• clean
• deen
• diene
• gene
• glean
• jean
• keen

Kids Definition

dean

noun

ˈdēn 

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

-ˌship 

noun

Biographical Definition

Dean

biographical name

ˈdēn 

Sir Patrick 1909–1994 British diplomat