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dean

/diːn/noun, verb

dean is spelled D-E-A-N: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 25 times per million words in written English, the 3,612th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, dean means “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…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of dean is deans.

How many letters and syllables are in dean?

Letters4: D-E-A-N
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing25 times per million words; the 3,612th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is dean?

Dean appears 25 times per million words in written English, the 3,612th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce dean?

  • /diːn/
  • [diːn]
  • [dĩːn]

Dean has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-dean.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with dean

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

dean vs deen0 B

Sounds like: deen, dene (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: dene.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with dean?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as dean.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: nade.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of dean

  • deans plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • deaning participle, present
  • deaned participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does dean mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 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. 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. 3

    The senior member of some group of people.

    dean of the diplomatic corps - a country's most senior ambassador

  4. 4

    A hill.

  5. 5

    Alternative form of dene.

verb

  1. 1

    rareTo serve as a dean.

  2. 2

    informalTo send (a student) to see the dean of a college or university.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Dean in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdoyen (senior official in college or university), doyenne (senior member of a group)
GermanDekan (senior official in college or university), Dechant (church dignitary)
Portuguesereitor (senior official in college or university), deão, decano (church dignitary)
Spanishdecano (senior official in college or university), deán (church dignitary)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does dean come from?

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

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after dean