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provincial

UK/pɹəˈvɪn(t)ʃəl/US/pɹəˈvɪn(t)ʃəl/
adjectiveC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,611 of 15,258mostly written

Provincial means of the regions rather than the capital, or narrow in outlook. A provincial city, provincial attitudes, provincial theatre.

The neutral sense is geographic and is used without insult in Canada and France, where a province is a real unit. In Britain it usually carries a sneer from the capital, and calling somebody provincial means small-minded rather than merely far away.

Definitions of provincial

  1. 1adjectiveprovincialOf the regions rather than the capital, or narrow in outlook.C1

    “After years in the capital, she moved back to a quiet provincial town.”

provincial is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin provincialis comes from provincia, a province, a territory outside Rome under Roman rule.

  1. Latin

    prōvinciālis — of a province

  2. Old French

    provincial

  3. Middle English

    provincial

  4. English, today

    provincial

From Middle English provincial, from Old French provincial, from Latin prōvinciālis (“of a province”), equivalent to province + -ial.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

provincial in the wild

  • The local government units in the National Capital Region, as well as independent cities, are administratively independent of any provincial government.

    Provinces of the Philippines

  • Each province is a member of the League of Provinces of the Philippines, an organization that represents provincial governments and promotes cooperation on issues affecting provincial administration.

    Provinces of the Philippines

  • China has 15 sub-provincial cities, including Dalian, Qingdao, Ningbo, Xiamen and Shenzhen and 5 separately planned cities.

    Sub-provincial division

  • Member of Provincial Parliament is the title used by members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, a provincial legislature in Canada.

    Member of Provincial Parliament (Canada)

  • The assembly meets at the Ontario Legislative Building, its home since 1892 located at Queen's Park in the provincial capital of Toronto.

    Legislative Assembly of Ontario

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • province