area dean

Multiple Entries:
  area dean    dean  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
area dean

▶noun see dean1 (sense 1)).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
dean1

▶noun

• 1 the head of the chapter of a cathedral or collegiate church.

  ■ (also rural dean, area dean) Brit. a member of the clergy exercising supervision over a group of parochial clergy within a division of an archdeaconry.

• 2 the head of a university faculty or department or of a medical school.

  ■ a college officer with a disciplinary role.

– derivatives
deanery noun (pl. deaneries).

– origin ME: from OFr. deien, from late L. decanus ‘chief of a group of ten’, from decem ‘ten’; cf. doyen.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
dean2

▶noun variant spelling of dene1.