PROVINCIAL definition and meaning
8 meanings: 1. of or connected with a province 2. characteristic of or connected with the provinces; local 3. having attitudes.... Click for more definitions.
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Definition of 'provincial'

Word Frequency

provincial

(prəvɪnʃəl)

Word forms: plural provincials

1. adjective [ADJECTIVE noun]

Provincial means connected with the parts of a country away from the capital city.

Jeremy Styles, 34, was the house manager for a provincial theatre for ten years.

2. adjective [ADJECTIVE noun]

Provincial means relating to a large section of a country which has its own administration.

...in Rasht, the provincial capital of Gilan province.

3. adjective

If you describe someone or something as provincial, you disapprove of them because you think that they are old-fashioned and boring.

[disapproval]

He decided to revamp the company's provincial image.

The audience was dull and very provincial.

4. countable noun

A provincial is someone who comes from a part of a country away from the capital city.

Owen died an unknown provincial.

Synonyms: yokel, hick [informal, mainly US, Canadian], rustic, country cousin More Synonyms of provincial

Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers

British English pronunciation

American English pronunciation

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Word Frequency

provincial in British English

adjective

1.

of or connected with a province

2.

characteristic of or connected with the provinces; local

3.

having attitudes and opinions supposedly common to people living in the provinces; rustic or unsophisticated; limited

4. New Zealand

denoting a football team representing a province, one of the historical administrative areas of New Zealand

noun

5.

a person lacking the sophistications of city life; rustic or narrow-minded individual

6.

a person coming from or resident in a province or the provinces

7.

the head of an ecclesiastical province

8.

the head of a major territorial subdivision of a religious order

Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers

Derived forms

provinciality (prəˌvɪnʃɪˈælɪtɪ)

noun

provincially (proˈvincially)

adverb

Word Frequency

provincial in American English

adjective

1.

of or belonging to a province

2.

having the ways, speech, attitudes, etc. of a certain province

3.

of or like that of rural provinces; countrified; rustic

4.

designating or of a style, esp. of 18th-cent. European furniture, that was characteristic of the provinces and was a simpler and plainer copy of the style characteristic of the capital and cultural centers

see also French Provincial

5.

narrow; limited; unsophisticated

a provincial outlook

noun

6.

a native of a province

7.

a provincial person; esp., a narrow-minded or unsophisticated person

Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition. Copyright © 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.

Derived forms

provincially (proˈvincially)

adverb

Word origin

ME prouyncial < MFr < L provincialis

Word Frequency

provincial in American English

(prəˈvɪnʃəl)

adjective

1.

belonging or peculiar to some particular province; local

the provincial newspaper

2.

of or pertaining to the provinces

provincial customs

provincial dress

3.

having or showing the manners, viewpoints, etc., considered characteristic of unsophisticated inhabitants of a province; rustic; narrow or illiberal; parochial

a provincial point of view

4. (often cap) Fine Arts

noting or pertaining to the styles of architecture, furniture, etc., found in the provinces, esp. when imitating styles currently or formerly in fashion in or around the capital

Italian Provincial

5. History

of or pertaining to any of the American provinces of Great Britain

noun

6.

a person who lives in or comes from the provinces

7.

a person who lacks urban sophistication or broad-mindedness

8. Ecclesiast

a.

the head of an ecclesiastical province

b.

a member of a religious order presiding over the order in a given district or province

SYNONYMS 3. rural, small-town.

Most material © 2005, 1997, 1991 by Penguin Random House LLC. Modified entries © 2019 by Penguin Random House LLC and HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Derived forms

provincially

adverb

Word origin

[1300–50; ME (n. and adj.) ‹ L prōvinciālis. See province, -al1]

Examples of 'provincial' in a sentence

provincial

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Its fighters have captured a string of provincial capitals.How noisy could a genteel provincial city be?Getting these apprenticeships took connections, and was expensive and difficult for provincial doctors.The photographs – and the evidence of a flagrant breach of the provincial government's public health messaging – prompted outrage.The rise in infections during the southern hemisphere winter was widely predicted, leading to angry criticism of provincial and national officials.It is really just a large provincial city with fancy shops and restaurants.Three other provincial capitals are under threat.This shows some organization; but it was done at the expense of starving traffic to the capitals and large provincial towns.The whole point of great artists is to challenge those certainties that it is the whole point of provincial towns to embody.What about provincial theatres that don't have big budgets or public funding?

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provincial

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In other languages

provincial

British English: provincial ADJECTIVE /prəˈvɪnʃəl/

Provincial means connected with the parts of a country away from the capital city.

...the provincial police.

American English: provincial /prəˈvɪnʃəl/

Brazilian Portuguese: provinciano

Chinese: 省的

European Spanish: provincial

French: provincial

German: Provinz-

Italian: provinciale

Japanese: 地方の

Korean: 지방의

European Portuguese: provinciano

Latin American Spanish: provincial

Thai: เขตต่างจังหวัด