provider
Americannoun
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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.
And parents of babies in this age group who are traveling to a “domestic measles outbreak area” should consult with a healthcare provider about getting a measles vaccination for their infant, the agency said.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 19, 2026
Imagine if one company could become the railroad, electric utility and cloud-computing provider of the emerging space economy.
From Science Daily • Jun. 19, 2026
Moody’s, meanwhile, gave SpaceX a Baa1 long-term issuer rating, citing the company’s strength as the leading orbital launch provider and operator of Starlink, the largest low-Earth orbit satellite broadband network.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 18, 2026
Inclusion rules, set and enforced by each index provider, typically demand that companies trade publicly for about a year before admission.
From Barron's • Jun. 18, 2026
At that moment a movement in the valley caught Chup’s attention, and, good provider that he was, he left the aerie to catch a pigeon.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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.
