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:
Those who are not immunized and were exposed less than a week ago should talk to a health care provider about vaccination or immune globulin for prevention.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
The project is run by Cynon Taf, a social housing provider.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
In June, Barrow admitted that The Gambia owed money to Senegal's public electricity provider, Senelec, explaining that the financial strain has complicated efforts to stabilize the power supply.
From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026
Flowserve, the Irving, Texas-based provider of flow-control products and services, named Brian Ezzell as CFO.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Once more Nathan was sole provider for us, and we forgot the good living we had known.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
They demanded different systems than what the company had built for service providers, due to higher capacity demands, he said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 19, 2026
Additionally, the team said Palantir has “a very strong demand backdrop for its AI and automation software,” and faces little competition there from other AI and software providers.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
It is still in the process of getting certain AI providers signed on to the program.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
Experts say capacity shortfalls during busy times, housing developments and planning regulations are partly to blame, with rules varying across London's 33 councils - creating more challenges for network providers.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
More than anything else, it was the lack of concern and responsiveness by police, prosecutors, and victims' services providers that devastated Mozelle and Onzelle.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
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.
