provider
AmericanOther Word Forms
- nonprovider noun
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.
Officials urge people who suspect they or their child have measles call their healthcare provider.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 16, 2026
Iranian oil that can’t be exported will fill the country’s storage tanks in two to three weeks, which would force the country to shut-in its oil production, data provider Vortexa said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026
Per the truce, the telehealth provider agreed to sell branded Wegovy and Ozempic injectables on its platform as well as branded oral Wegovy rather than its own compounded version of the pill.
From Barron's • Apr. 16, 2026
Instead, she had to travel to the headquarters of her phone provider in Kano's city centre.
From BBC • Apr. 16, 2026
Fwooper has long been a provider of fancy quills and also lays brilliantly patterned eggs.
From "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by J.K. Rowling
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.
