provisional

American  

[pruh-vizh-uh-nl] / prəˈvɪʒ ə nl /

adjective

1. providing or serving for the time being only; existing only until permanently or properly replaced; temporary.

   a provisional government.

   Synonyms:

   pro tempore, ad interim, stopgap, short-term, interim

2. accepted or adopted tentatively; conditional; contingent.

   Synonyms:

   probationary, dependent

3. (usually initial capital letter) of or being the wing of the Irish Republican Army that follows a policy of violence.

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noun

1. Philately. a stamp that serves temporarily, pending the appearance of the regular issue, or during a temporary shortage of the regular stamps.

2. a provisional member of a group.

3. Usually Provisional a member of the Provisional wing of the Irish Republican Army.

Provisional ¹ British  

/ prəˈvɪʒənəl /

adjective

1. of, designating, or relating to the unofficial factions of the IRA and Sinn Féin that became increasingly dominant following a split in 1969. The Provisional movement remained committed to a policy of terrorism until its ceasefires of the mid-1990s

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noun

1. Also called: Provo.  a member of the Provisional IRA or Sinn Féin

provisional ² British  

/ prəˈvɪʒənəl, prəˈvɪʒənərɪ /

adjective

1. subject to later alteration; temporary or conditional

   a provisional decision

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noun

1. a postage stamp surcharged during an emergency to alter the stamp's denomination or significance until a new or regular issue is printed

Other Word Forms

• nonprovisional adjective
• nonprovisionally adverb
• nonprovisionary adjective
• provisionality noun
• provisionally adverb
• provisionalness noun
• unprovisional adjective

Etymology

Origin of provisional

First recorded in 1595–1605; provision + -al ¹

Example Sentences

Police said provisional figures show that between 1 January and 22 March this year there were 18 road traffic fatalities in Northern Ireland.

From BBC

U.S. jobs data and eurozone provisional inflation figures for March will attract attention in the coming week as data begins to give a picture of how the war in the Middle East has affected economies.

From The Wall Street Journal

Instead, we are presented with a set of writing scenes that are provisional, improvised, transitory and, in many senses, unreproducible.

From The Wall Street Journal

The team has also submitted a provisional patent for this work.

From Science Daily

EU countries voted to allow the commission to move forward with applying the deal on a provisional basis in January.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• conditional
• interim
• temporary
• transitional