rector

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A cleric in charge of a parish in the Protestant Episcopal Church.
2. n. An Anglican cleric who has charge of a parish and owns the tithes from it.
3. n. A Roman Catholic priest appointed to be managerial as well as spiritual head of a church or other institution, such as a seminary or university.
4. n. The principal of certain schools, colleges, and universities.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A ruler or governor.
2. n. In the Ch. of Eng., a clergyman who has the charge of a parish and full possession of all the rights and privileges attached thereto. He differs from the vicar in that the latter is entitled only to a certain proportion of the ecclesiastical income specially set apart to the vicarage. The latter, again, differs from the curate (in the narrower or popular sense of that word), who is subject to the incumbent, whether rector or vicar, and the amount of whose salary is determined not by the law, but by the patron of the benefice, or by the incumbent employing him. Abbreviated Rect.
3. n. In the United States, a clergyman in charge of a parish in the Protestant Episcopal Church.
4. n. In the Roman Catholic Church, an ecclesiastic in charge of a congregation, a college, or a religious house; specifically, the superior of a Jesuit seminary or college.
5. n. The chief elective officer of some universities, as in France and Scotland. In Scotland rector is also the title of the head master of an academy or important public school; in England, of the heads of Exeter and Lincoln colleges, Oxford. In the United States it is a title assumed by the principals of some private schools: as, the rectors of St. John's and St. Paul's. In Germany rector is the title of the head of a higher school; the chief officer of a university is styled rector magnificus or, when the prince of the country is the titular head, rector magnificentissimus.
6. n. The presiding officer or chairman of certain gilds and associations.

Wiktionary

1. n. In the Anglican Church, a cleric in charge of a parish and who owns the tithes of it.
2. n. In the Roman Catholic Church, a cleric with managerial as well as spiritual responsibility for a church or other institution.
3. n. A headmaster in various educational institutions, e.g. a university.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. rare A ruler or governor.
2. n. (Ch. of Eng.) 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.
3. n. (Prot. Epis. Ch.) A clergyman in charge of a parish.
4. n. Scot. The head master of a public school.
5. n. The chief elective officer of some universities, as in France and Scotland; sometimes, the head of a college.
6. n. (R. C. Ch.) 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.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a person authorized to conduct religious worship