Paramount chief

A paramount chief is the English-language designation for a king or queen or the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a chief-based system. This term is used occasionally in anthropological and archaeological theory to refer to the rulers of multiple chiefdoms or the rulers of exceptionally powerful chiefdoms that have subordinated others.

During the Victorian era, paramount chief was a formal title created by British colonial administrators in the British Empire and applied in Britain's colonies in Asia and Africa. They used it as a substitute for the word "king" to ensure that only the British monarch held that title; in colonized countries without a tradition of Chiefdom, such as the Federated Malay States and the Princely States of the British Raj, the word "ruler" was used instead of "king" for similar reasons. Since the title "chief" was already used in terms of district and town administrators, the addition of "paramount" was made so as to distinguish between the ruling monarch and the local aristocracy.