The term paramount ruler, or sometimes paramount king, is a generic description, though occasionally also used as an actual title, for a number of rulers' position in relative terms, as the summit of a feudalistic pyramid of rulers of lesser polities (such as vassal princes) in a given historical and geographical context, often of different ranks, which all recognize the single paramount ruler as their senior, though not necessarily with effectively commanding authority (as in a true empire), but often rather a notion like the Western suzerainty.
Whether the term is used where it could apply is essentially a matter of convention, and as the relatively vague, similar definitions overlap, its use may in certain cases coexist with the use of another term as those mentioned in the See also section.