1
a
: the head of the chapter of a collegiate or cathedral church
b
: a Roman Catholic priest who supervises one district of a diocese
2
a
: the head of a division, faculty, college, or school of a university
b
: a college or secondary school administrator in charge of counseling and disciplining students
3
dean
intransitive verb
Synonyms
Examples of dean in a Sentence
She's the dean of the university's business school.
the dean of liberal arts
Recent Examples on the Web
On her way to jail, Iqbal received an e-mail from a dean, written in brusque bureaucratese.
—
Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, 25 Apr. 2024
Over the coming days, a working group of deans, school administrators and faculty will try to find a resolution to the university crisis, noted Shafik, who didn't say when in-person classes would resume.
—Nick Perry, arkansasonline.com, 23 Apr. 2024
Over the coming days, a working group of deans, school administrators and faculty will try to find a resolution to the university crisis, noted Shafik, who didn’t say when in-person classes would resume.
—Nick Perry, Fortune, 22 Apr. 2024
The abuse was never reported to authorities by the dean or another school district official, according to the complaint.
—Julia Marnin, Sacramento Bee, 19 Apr. 2024
Rich Lyons Palo Alto native and former Cal business school dean is named chancellor of UC Berkeley, and will make $946,450 a year.
—Bay Area News Group, The Mercury News, 14 Apr. 2024
Hauptman, dean of the University of Nevada-Reno School of Medicine, is connected to 268 general payments from Abbott totaling about $197,000 in the Open Payments database.
—David Hilzenrath, NBC News, 6 Apr. 2024
To return, she was required to submit a letter to the dean and wrote about her unplanned pregnancy and how much restarting her education meant to her.
—Amber Ferguson, Washington Post, 6 Apr. 2024
Fort Lewis College has received about 3,000 FAFSA submissions so far — about half of where the Durango college usually is at this point in the academic year, said Jess Savage, Fort Lewis’s dean of enrollment.
—Elizabeth Hernandez, The Denver Post, 4 Apr. 2024
Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, 25 Apr. 2024
Over the coming days, a working group of deans, school administrators and faculty will try to find a resolution to the university crisis, noted Shafik, who didn't say when in-person classes would resume.
—Nick Perry, arkansasonline.com, 23 Apr. 2024
Over the coming days, a working group of deans, school administrators and faculty will try to find a resolution to the university crisis, noted Shafik, who didn’t say when in-person classes would resume.
—Nick Perry, Fortune, 22 Apr. 2024
The abuse was never reported to authorities by the dean or another school district official, according to the complaint.
—Julia Marnin, Sacramento Bee, 19 Apr. 2024
Rich Lyons Palo Alto native and former Cal business school dean is named chancellor of UC Berkeley, and will make $946,450 a year.
—Bay Area News Group, The Mercury News, 14 Apr. 2024
Hauptman, dean of the University of Nevada-Reno School of Medicine, is connected to 268 general payments from Abbott totaling about $197,000 in the Open Payments database.
—David Hilzenrath, NBC News, 6 Apr. 2024
To return, she was required to submit a letter to the dean and wrote about her unplanned pregnancy and how much restarting her education meant to her.
—Amber Ferguson, Washington Post, 6 Apr. 2024
Fort Lewis College has received about 3,000 FAFSA submissions so far — about half of where the Durango college usually is at this point in the academic year, said Jess Savage, Fort Lewis’s dean of enrollment.
—Elizabeth Hernandez, The Denver Post, 4 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dean.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near dean
Cite this Entry
“Dean.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dean. Accessed 2 May. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
dean
noun1
: the head of the chapter of a cathedral church
2
a
: the head of a division, faculty, college, or school of a university
b
: a college or secondary school administrator in charge of counseling or disciplining students
3
: the senior member of a group
the dean of the diplomatic corps
Biographical Definition
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