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

He was nominated for the award by his supervisor at Moraine Valley, Terra Jacobson, dean of Learning Resources, who also teaches a graduate class at Dominican, along with colleagues Marie Martino and Jayne Killackey. — Melinda Moore, Chicago Tribune, 1 Oct. 2026

Guzman, a former law school dean who became provost in 2023, faced similar tests over protests and free speech. — Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times, 30 Sep. 2026

Attending the drama school at the same time as Douglas was Evan Yionoulis, the new artistic director of the Yale Repertory Theatre and the new dean of the David Geffen School of Drama. — Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 28 Sep. 2026

Allison was founding dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School, which for decades trained many of China’s government officials. — Evelyn Cheng, CNBC, 26 Sep. 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
• clean
• deen
• diene
• gene
• glean
• jean
• keen
• lien

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