Synonyms

provide

American

[pruh-vahyd] / prəˈvaɪd /

verb (used with object)

to make available; furnish.

to provide employees with various benefits.

Synonyms:

render, give
to supply or equip.

to provide the army with new fighter planes.
to afford or yield.

Synonyms:

produce
Law. to arrange for or stipulate beforehand, as by a provision or proviso.
Archaic. to prepare or procure beforehand.

verb (used without object)

to take measures with due foresight (usually followed by for oragainst ).
to make arrangements for supplying means of support, money, etc. (usually followed byfor ).

He provided for his children in his will.
to supply means of support (often followed byfor ).

to provide for oneself.

provide British

/ prəˈvaɪd /

verb

to put at the disposal of; furnish or supply
to afford; yield

this meeting provides an opportunity to talk
(intr; often foll by for or against) to take careful precautions (over)

he provided against financial ruin by wise investment
to supply means of support (to), esp financially

he provides for his family
(in statutes, documents, etc) to determine (what is to happen in certain contingencies), esp by including a proviso condition
to confer and induct into ecclesiastical offices
rare to have or get in store

in summer many animals provide their winter food

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Usage

Where does provide come from? For many, the word provide might conjure up tangible objects you can hand over, like food, supplies, goods, or money. Provide may also bring to mind less concrete things that can nevertheless be given or furnished, such as answers or solutions or responses. So, it might surprise you to learn that the root of provide isn’t about the sense of touch—but vision. Provide entered English around 1375–1425. It comes from the Latin prōvidēre, meaning “to foresee, look after, provide for.” The underlying idea of this verb is seeing something at a distance or beforehand, and when you can see something coming, you can make arrangements and prepare supplies for it. We call such arrangements and supplies provisions, a word that is also derived from prōvidēre. The Latin prōvidēre is composed of two parts. The first part is prō-, a widely used prefix based on the preposition prō, meaning “before, in front of.” The second part is vidēre, meaning “to see, look at.”Prō- appears in many words English borrowed from Latin, such as these verbs:

The verb vidēre is the ultimate source of a lot of English words, many of which entered English through French. Some more familiar derivatives include view, video, vision, visual, visit, and vista. Other derivatives are less obvious and even surprising:

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of provide

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English providen, Latin prōvidēre “to foresee, look after, provide for,” equivalent to prō- pro- ¹ + vidēre “to see”; cf. video ( def. )

Explanation

To provide means to give or supply. When you stay in a bed and breakfast, the innkeeper will generally provide you with a meal in the morning as part of the price of the room. The verb provide generally means to make available or even to allow. The Constitution, for example, provides for protected freedom of speech. But you've probably also heard people talking about getting a job to provide for their family — in that case, to provide means to make money to pay for food and bills, or in other words, bring home the bacon.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing provide

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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:

provide provides provided providing

He did not cite any specific story that prompted the action, claiming the outlets have long been unfair to him and never provide any positive coverage.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026

The chip giant will provide the underlying compute platform and artificial-intelligence tools to Einride’s autonomous-driving systems, Einride said Monday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026

But a large review published in The BMJ suggests that, for most older people, these supplements provide little to no meaningful protection against falls or broken bones.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 21, 2026

A trust can also provide continuity if one or both of you becomes incapacitated, allowing the successor trustee to manage trust assets without the need for court intervention.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 21, 2026

Other smaller specialist groups existed, in which boys learned how to signal in Morse code, operate antiaircraft weaponry, provide first aid and practical field medicine, perform air-raid warden duties, and handle other weapons.

From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

The pool feed, as it’s called, provides video to all other press outlets.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026

He pointed to potential competition for services like what Starlink provides outside of the U.S. and China.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 20, 2026

But the trade remains highly lucrative and the plethora of conflicts provides ever more opportunities.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

The potential shortfall provides momentum for Caterpillar’s automation push, as the company faces the challenge of selling equipment to companies that don’t have enough operators.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026

Calvin said, “See that? We want apple wood and the Universe provides it.”

From "The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle" by Leslie Connor

Champagne argued that Canada's strong fiscal position helped underpin its resilience, and the dispute with the US provided a "golden opportunity" to diversify.

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026

He remained a missing person until recently when a single bone washed ashore, and investigative work provided closure after three decades for the family of the California father of three.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026

The measurements provided strong evidence that they did.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026

Some UGC creators said they believed the FTC’s guidelines provided enough leeway to create the stealth marketing posts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026

His name was Paul Robinson, and he was in Kenya as part of a program that provided scholarships to African students to study in the United States.

From "Facing the Lion" by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton and Herman Viola

It added that it was providing "regulatory flexibility" to help manage temporary storage pressures and would "continue to support efforts across the sector to restore treatment capacity and minimise disruption".

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

The findings could help researchers better understand existing complex systems, particularly ecological networks, while also providing engineers with new strategies for designing systems from the ground up.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026

Enter Reinsve and Stan, an ideal pair of leads capable of providing the understated, baseline emotion that Mungiu requires to pull off an undertaking as tricky as “Fjord.”

From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026

And such funds are unlikely to move in sync with stocks overall, potentially providing another source of return in a market decline.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

And his conduct in providing clandestine instructions to Adams’s cabinet undermined the constitutional authority of the executive branch in ways that would have landed him in jail in modern times.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023