noun a ruler or governor.
2. rector ·noun a clergyman in charge of a parish.
3. rector ·noun the head master of a public school.
4. rector ·noun the superior officer or chief of a convent or religious house; and among the jesuits the superior of a house that is a seminary or college.
5. rector ·noun the chief elective officer of some universities, as in france and scotland; sometimes, the head of a college; as, the rector of exeter college, or of lincoln college, at oxford.
6. rector ·noun a clergyman who has the charge and cure of a parish, and has the tithes, ·etc.; the clergyman of a parish where the tithes are not impropriate. ·see the note under vicar.