dean

Multiple Entries:
  dean    dene  

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.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
dene1 /diːn/ (also dean)

▶noun [usu. in place names] Brit. a deep, narrow, wooded valley.

– origin OE denu, of Gmc origin; rel. to den.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
dene2 /diːn/

▶noun dialect a bare sandy tract or low sandhill by the sea.

– origin ME: perh. of Gmc origin and rel. to dune.