A Governor-General is most generally a
governor of high rank, or a principal governor ranking above "ordinary" governors. In
Canada the title Governor General is always used unhyphenated, as it was frequently in
Pakistan/
India prior to the abolition of the last monarchy. The most common contemporary usage of the term is to refer to the royally appointed territorial governor of a region, or royal representative in a country. The term is thus sometimes taken to be the same as
viceroy or
royal governor. Today the term "Governor-General" is most likely to be used in the context of the former British Empire or a former British colony that is now an independent
Commonwealth realm. The office can be considered equivalent to that of a
Lord Lieutenant in the
Home Nations.
See more at Wikipedia.org...