Inhabitant with head of state missing the start (8)
I believe the answer is:
resident
'inhabitant' is the definition.
(I know that resident is a type of inhabitant)
'head of state missing the start' is the wordplay.
'head of state' becomes 'president' (president is a type of head of state).
'missing the start' means to remove the first letter.
'president' with its first letter removed is 'RESIDENT'.
'with' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for resident that I've seen before include "Someone with a home" , "Inserted by permanent inhabitant" , "Person living in" , "Permanent dweller" , "Occupant's" .)