dean

See also: Dean, déan, deán, and dèan

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /diːn/
  • IPA(key): [dĩːn], enPR: dēn
  • Rhymes: -iːn
  • Homophone: dene

Etymology 1

From Anglo-Norman deen, from Old French deien, from Latin decānus.

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 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, Rex Stout, "The Next Witness", in Three Witnesses, October 1994 Bantam edition, →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, rare, informal) To send (a student) to see the dean of a university.

Etymology 2

Related to den.

Noun

dean (plural deans)

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

Anagrams

Friulian

Etymology

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

Noun

dean m (plural deans)

  1. (religion) dean
  2. doyen

Galician

Verb

dean

  1. third-person plural present subjunctive of dar
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.