dean

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See also: Dean, déan, deán, and dèan

English

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Wikipedia

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English den, deen (“dean”), from Anglo-Norman deen and continental Old French deien (modern French doyen), from Latin decānus. Doublet of doyen.

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).
    • 1995 October, Robert Frost, Richard Poirier, Robert Frost: Collected Poems, Prose, & Plays (LOA #81) (DE-601)374069697: Library of America series)‎, Library of America, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 357:
      Lucretius versus the Lake Poets ' Nature I loved ; and next to Nature , Art . '
      Dean , adult education may seem silly .
      What of it though ? I got some willy - nilly
      The other evening at your college deanery .
      And grateful for it ( Let's not be facetious!) […]
  2. A dignitary or presiding officer in certain church bodies, especially an ecclesiastical dignitary, subordinate to a bishop, in charge of a chapter of canons.
  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 October 19, Rex Stout, The Next Witness, Three Witnesses, 94 Bantam, →ISBN, page 67:
      All of the switchboard operators had been parties to it, including Marie Willis. Their dean, Alice Hart, collected […]
Synonyms
  • (Head of cathedral chapter): provost
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

dean (third-person singular simple present deans, present participle deaning, simple past and past participle deaned)

  1. (intransitive, rare) To serve as a dean.
  2. (transitive, Oxbridge, otherwise rare, informal) To send (a student) to see the dean of a college or university.

Etymology 2

Related to den.

Noun

dean (plural deans)

  1. (Sussex, chiefly in place names) A hill.

Etymology 3

Noun

dean (plural deans)

  1. (Northumbria, chiefly in place names) Alternative form of dene.

Anagrams

Basque

Noun

dean

  1. inessive singular of de

Friulian

Etymology

From Late Latin decānus, from Latin decem (“ten”). Compare Italian decano, Venetan degàn, French doyen.

Noun

dean m (plural deans)

  1. (religion) dean
  2. doyen

Galician

Verb

dean

  1. inflection of dar:
    1. third-person plural present subjunctive
    2. third-person plural imperative
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