doyen

noun doy·en \ ˈdȯi-ən , -ˌ(y)en ; ˈdwä-ˌyaⁿ(n) \

Updated on: 12 May 2018

Definition of doyen

1 a : the senior member of a body or group

b : a person considered to be knowledgeable or uniquely skilled as a result of long experience in some field of endeavor

2 : the oldest example of a category

See doyen defined for English-language learners

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Examples of doyen in a Sentence

He is considered the doyen of political journalists.
considered the doyen of American art critics

Recent Examples of doyen from the Web

The doyen of Labour’s energy policy is not Clement Attlee, the prime minister who nationalised Britain’s fractured array of public and private energy suppliers.

— The Economist, "Robin Hood Energy, the company bringing power to the people," 3 May 2018
The fashion doyen returns the favor, dominating the film with his sheer force of personality.

— frank scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, "'The Gospel According to Andre': Film Review | Tribeca 2018," 27 Apr. 2018
Six years later, Douthat, a columnist for this newspaper, has become the successor to the conservative Catholic doyen William F. Buckley Jr. (who once took him sailing — and skinny-dipping — on Long Island Sound).

— paul elie, New York Times, "A Conservative Catholic Begs the Pope: Lead Us Not Into Temptation," 9 Apr. 2018
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Andrei Kolesnikov as a former doyen of the Kremlin press pool.

— Newsweek, "Russia's Ukrainian Retreat," 8 June 2015
Trump and Leo built an unlikely alliance that would benefit both the politician and the legal doyen.

— tessa berenson, Time, "Inside Trump's Plan to Dramatically Reshape U.S. Courts," 8 Feb. 2018
Kositza has become the face and voice of the publishing house, reviewing books and promoting Antaios’s new releases on her YouTube channel, while Kubitschek is one of its ideological doyens.

— sumi somaskanda, The Atlantic, "A New, New Right Rises in Germany," 22 June 2017
The Causal Diamond Bousso first encountered the measure problem in the 1990s as a graduate student working with Stephen Hawking, the doyen of black hole physics.

— natalie wolchover and peter byrne, WIRED, "How to Check if Your Universe Should Exist," 7 Nov. 2014

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

Did You Know?

English picked up "doyen" from French in the 17th century. The French term in turn comes from the Late Latin word decanus, which itself comes from the Greek dekanos, meaning "chief of ten." A "doyen" can be a leader of a group, such as a diplomatic corps. In this regard, the word has been used to refer to someone who is specifically or tacitly allowed to speak for that group. More broadly, a "doyen" refers to a highly skilled and respected veteran of a particular field. The feminine form of "doyen" is "doyenne."