dean

See also Dean, déan, and dèan

English

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• enPR: dēn, IPA: /diːn/, 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. 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) Polish: dziekan (pl) m. Portuguese: reitor (pt) Russian: декан (ru) (dekán) m. Spanish: decano (es) m.

church dignitary

Bulgarian: главен свещеник (bg) Dutch: deken (nl) m.

Italian: decano (it) m.

senior member of a group

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

Italian: decano (it) m.

Anagrams

• Aden
• Dane
• Edna

---

Galician

Verb

dean

1. third-person plural present subjunctive of dar