Other forms: deans
A dean is the head of a specific area of a college, university, or private school. When you're thinking about studying in Madagascar for a semester, you might make an appointment to talk to the study abroad dean.
Individual colleges within a larger university system often have separate deans, like the dean of the medical school and the dean of arts and sciences. Within the college, there might also be a dean for each separate year, like the sophomore class dean, and deans for different offices or departments. Dean comes from the Latin decanus, first "commander of ten soldiers," and then "head of ten monks in a monastery," from the Greek word for "ten," deka.