dean

See also Dean, déan, and dèan

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman deen < Old French deien < Latin decānus.

Pronunciation

• enPR: dēn, IPA: /diːn/, X-SAMPA: /di:n/
• Rhymes: -iːn

  Homophones: dene

Noun

dean (plural deans)

1. A senior official in a college or university, who may be in charge of a division or faculty (for example, the dean of science) or have some other advisory or disciplinary function (for example, the dean of students).
2. A dignitary or presiding officer in certain church bodies, especially an ecclesiastical dignitary, subordinate to a bishop, in charge of a chapter of canon.
3. The senior member of some group of people.

   dean of the diplomatic corps - a country's most senior ambassador

   dean of the House - the longest-serving member of a legislature

   • 1955, Rex Stout, "The Next Witness", in Three Witnesses, October 1994 Bantam edition, ISBN 0553249592, page 67:

     All of the switchboard operators had been parties to it, including Marie Willis. Their dean, Alice Hart, collected […]

4. (Sussex) a hill (chiefly place names).

Related terms

• decanal

Derived terms

• dean and chapter
• deaness

Translations

senior official in college or university

• Armenian: դեկան (hy) (dekan) 
• Bulgarian: декан (bg) m (dekan)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 院長 (cmn), 院长 (cmn) (yuànzhǎng)

• Dutch: decaan (nl) m, (rare) deken (nl) m
• Finnish: dekaani (fi)
• French: doyen (fr) m

• German: Dekan m, Dekanin f
• Indonesian: dekan (id)
• Jèrriais: douoyen m
• Polish: dziekan (pl) m
• Portuguese: reitor (pt)
• Russian: декан (ru) (dekán) m 
• Spanish: decano (es) m

church dignitary

• Bulgarian: главен свещеник (bg) (glaven sveštenik)
• Dutch: deken (nl) m

• Finnish: kirkkoherra (fi)
• Italian: decano (it) m

senior member of a group

• Dutch: deken (nl) m
• French: doyen (fr), doyenne (fr) f

• Italian: decano (it) m
• Jèrriais: douoyen m

Anagrams

• Aden
• Dane
• Edna

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Galician

Verb

dean

1. third-person plural present subjunctive of dar