provider
Americannoun
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providers
plural
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a person or thing that provides.
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a person who supports a family or another person.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of provider
Explanation
A provider is a person who gives someone something they need. If your parents both have jobs so they can feed you and buy you what you need, you can call them providers. Your mom's a provider if she works so she can care for you, put food on the table, and send you to school. There are other types of providers as well, although they all give you something you need, often a service. Your school is a provider of education, and the pharmacy around the corner is a provider of medication, makeup, and magazines. It's increasingly common to call your main doctor a "primary care provider."
Vocabulary lists containing provider
Father's Day Words
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"Principles of Business," Vocabulary from Chapter 5
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"A Raisin in the Sun," "My Father is a Simple Man," and "My Mother Pieced Quilts"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Panettiere's decision to publicly share her struggles is worthy of respect, said William Moyers, the vice-president of public affairs for Hazelden Betty Ford, the largest nonprofit addiction treatment provider in the US.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Enter veteran character actor Lin Shaye, whose psychic Elise has been a series mainstay and a reliable provider of expository dialogue, despite the fact that her character died at the end of the 2011 original.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
On average, students now submit nearly seven applications each on the Common App, a rise of 46% since 2015-16, according to a 2024-25 report from the provider.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Take Solaris Energy Infrastructure, the power provider to xAI’s Colossus campuses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
“What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. I’m very satisfied. Your father is a good provider and he is kind to me.”
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
DPC providers often recommend pairing membership with a high-deductible health plan that has a lower monthly premium.
From Slate ● Aug. 22, 2026
The fees were so steep that other pay-TV providers, including Cox, Dish Network and, for many years, DirecTV, refused to carry the Dodgers channel — leading to one of the longest blackouts in sports TV.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Prosecutors argued the murders were premeditated, while her defense contended she had been suffering from postpartum psychosis and depression, and that she wasn’t properly treated or diagnosed by care providers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Neocloud companies are providers of computing power that are benefiting from massive investment by hyperscalers as the artificial-intelligence infrastructure build-out continues.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
He is now spearheading a drive to outsource low-end Japanese jobs to Japanese-speaking call centers and service providers in China.
From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
