rector

See also: Rector

English

Alternative forms

• rectour (obsolete)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English rectour, rector, from Old French rector, rectour and Latin rēctor.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛktɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛktə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛktə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: rec‧tor

Noun

rector (plural rectors)

1. In the Anglican Church, a cleric in charge of a parish and who owns the tithes of it.

   Hypernym: cleric

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.

2. In the Roman Catholic Church, a cleric with managerial as well as spiritual responsibility for a church or other institution.

   Hypernym: cleric

3. (Eastern Orthodoxy, uncommon) A priest or bishop in the Orthodox Church who is in charge of a parish or in an administrative leadership position in a theological seminary or academy.

   Hypernym: cleric

4. In a Protestant church, a pastor in charge of a church with administrative and pastoral leadership combined.

   Hypernym: cleric

5. A headmaster or headmistress in various educational institutions, e.g., a university.
6. (Scotland) An official in Scottish universities who heads the university court and is elected by and represents the student body.

Derived terms

• corrector
• director
• lay rector
• missionary rector
• prorector
• rectoress
• rector magnificus
• rectorship
• rectress
• subrector

Related terms

• rectorate
• rectorial
• rectory
• rectrix
• regular

Translations

cleric in charge of a parish

• Armenian: ծխակեր (cxaker)
• Bulgarian: енорийски свещеник m (enorijski sveštenik)
• Dutch: predikant (nl) m, dominee (nl) m
• Finnish: kirkkoherra (fi)
• Hungarian: plébános (hu)
• Irish: reachtaire m
• Italian: parroco (it) m
• Macedonian: жу́пник m (žúpnik), па́рох m (pároh)
• Norman: recteu m (Jersey)
• Polish: proboszcz (pl) m
• Portuguese: reitor (pt) m
• Romanian: paroh (ro) m
• Russian: па́стор (ru) m (pástor)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: жу̑пнӣк m

  Latin: žȗpnīk (sh) m

headmaster or headmistress

• Armenian: ռեկտոր (hy) (ṙektor)
• Bulgarian: ре́ктор m (réktor)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 院長 / 院长 (zh) (yuànzhǎng)

• Czech: rektor (cs) m
• Dutch: rector (nl) m, rektor m
• Esperanto: rektoro, rektorino (female)
• Finnish: rehtori (fi) (male or female)
• French: recteur (fr) m, rectrice (fr) f
• German: Rektor (de) m, Rektorin (de) f
• Greek: πρύτανης (el) m or f (prýtanis)
• Hungarian: rektor (hu), igazgató (hu)
• Indonesian: rektor (id)
• Irish: uachtarán m
• Italian: rettore (it) m, rettoressa f
• Kazakh: ректор (rektor)
• Macedonian: ре́ктор m (réktor), ре́кторка f (réktorka)
• Norman: recteu m (Jersey)
• Polish: rektor (pl) m
• Portuguese: reitor (pt) m, reitora (pt) f
• Romanian: rector (ro) m, rectoară f
• Russian: ре́ктор (ru) m (réktor)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ре̏ктор

  Latin: rȅktor (sh) m

• Swedish: rektor (sv) c
• Turkish: rektör (tr)

Anagrams

• Corter

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin rēctōrem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [rəkˈtu]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Central) [rəkˈto]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [rekˈtoɾ]
• IPA^(key): (Northwestern) [rekˈto]

• Audio (Central):

  (file)

Adjective

rector (feminine rectora, masculine plural rectors, feminine plural rectores)

1. ruling
2. guiding, regulating, directing

Noun

rector m (plural rectors, feminine rectora, feminine plural rectores)

1. rector
2. dean
3. ruler, director, head

Derived terms

• rectorat

Further reading

• “rector”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “rector”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “rector” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “rector”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin rēctor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈrɛk.tɔr/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: rec‧tor
• Rhymes: -ɛktɔr

Noun

rector m (plural rectoren or rectors, no diminutive)

1. rector

Descendants

• Indonesian: rektor

Latin

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ-

Proto-Indo-European *-eti

Proto-Indo-European *h₃réǵeti

Proto-Italic *regō

Latin regō

Proto-Indo-European *-tōr

Proto-Italic *-tōr

Latin -tor

Latin rēctor

From regō (“to steer, to guide; to rule”) + -tor. Parallel but not directly equivalent to Oscan 𐌓𐌄𐌂𐌀𐌕𐌖𐌓𐌄𐌝 (regatureí).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈreːk.tɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈrɛk.tor]

Noun

rēctor m (genitive rēctōris, feminine rēctrīx); third declension

1. guide, leader
2. driver (of a horse, an elephant, a wagon, etc.)
3. director, ruler, master, governor
4. tutor, instructor, teacher, mentor

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	rēctor	rēctōrēs
genitive	rēctōris	rēctōrum
dative	rēctōrī	rēctōribus
accusative	rēctōrem	rēctōrēs
ablative	rēctōre	rēctōribus
vocative	rēctor	rēctōrēs

Descendants

• Old Leonese: rechor
• → Asturian: reutor, rector
• → Bulgarian: ректор (rektor)
• → Byzantine Greek: ῥαίκτωρ (rhaíktōr), ῥέκτωρ (rhéktōr)
  • → Old Armenian: ռեքտաւռ (ṙekʻtawṙ)
• → Dutch: rector
  • → Indonesian: rektor
• → English: rector
• → French: recteur
• → German: Rektor
• Italian: rettore
• → Norman: recteu (Jersey)
• → Old Irish: rechtaire
  • Irish: reachtaire
• Portuguese: reitor
• → Polish: rektor
  • → Russian: ре́ктор (réktor)
    • → Armenian: ռեկտոր (ṙektor)
• → Romanian: rector
• → Spanish: rector
• → Swedish: rektor

References

• “rector”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “rector”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "rector", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “rector”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the head of the state: rector civitatis (De Or. 1. 48. 211)
    

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin rēctor or German Rektor or French recteur.

Noun

rector m (plural rectori)

1. rector (headmaster in various educational institutions)

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	rector	rectorul	rectori	rectorii
genitive-dative	rector	rectorului	rectori	rectorilor
vocative	rectorule		rectorilor

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ-

Proto-Indo-European *-eti

Proto-Indo-European *h₃réǵeti

Proto-Italic *regō

Latin regō

Proto-Indo-European *-tōr

Proto-Italic *-tōr

Latin -tor

Latin rēctorbor.

Spanish rector

Borrowed from Latin rēctor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /reɡˈtoɾ/ [reɣ̞ˈt̪oɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: rec‧tor

Adjective

rector (feminine rectora, masculine plural rectores, feminine plural rectoras)

1. governing, directing

Noun

rector m (plural rectores, feminine rectora, feminine plural rectoras)

1. rector

Derived terms

• rectorado
• rectorar

Further reading

• “rector”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025