province

American  

[prov-ins] / ˈprɒv ɪns /

noun

• provinces
  plural

1. an administrative division or unit of a country.

2. the provinces,

   1. the parts of a country outside of the capital or the largest cities.

   2. (in England) all parts of the country outside of London.

3. a country, territory, district, or region.

4. Geography. physiographic province.

5. a department or branch of learning or activity.

   the province of mathematics.

   Synonyms:

   area

6. sphere or field of activity or authority, as of a person; office, function, or business.

   Such decisions do not lie within his province.

7. a major subdivision of British India.

8. an ecclesiastical territorial division, as that within which an archbishop or a metropolitan exercises jurisdiction.

9. History/Historical.

   1. any of the North American colonies now forming major administrative divisions of Canada.

   2. any of certain colonies of Great Britain which are now part of the U.S.

10. Roman History. a country or territory outside of Italy, brought under the ancient Roman dominion and administered by a governor sent from Rome.

11. Mining. an individual mineral-producing area.

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province British  

/ ˈprɒvɪns /

noun

1. a territory governed as a unit of a country or empire

2. a district, territory, or region

3. (plural) those parts of a country lying outside the capital and other large cities and regarded as outside the mainstream of sophisticated culture

4. ecology a subdivision of a region, characterized by a particular fauna and flora

5. an area or branch of learning, activity, etc

6. the field or extent of a person's activities or office

7. RC Church Church of England an ecclesiastical territory, usually consisting of several dioceses, and having an archbishop or metropolitan at its head

8. a major administrative and territorial subdivision of a religious order

9. history a region of the Roman Empire outside Italy ruled by a governor from Rome

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• subprovince
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• provinces
  plural

Etymology

Origin of province

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin prōvincia “province, official charge”

Explanation

A province is a region within a country. If you travel to Canada, you'll have to decide whether you want to go to the province of Quebec, or Saskatchewan, or one of the other 8 provinces in that enormous country. Many countries are divided into provinces. In the U.S. we don't have official provinces; we have states and counties. But we can use province in its other meaning, which is "the sphere of one's activities." If you manage a coffee shop and sit there reading and drinking coffee even when you're not working, then that shop is your province.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

province provinces

Lake Ontario, the smallest of the Great Lakes, borders both the Canadian province and the US state of New York.

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026

The extent of the damage on the Tibetan side is unclear but the BBC spoke to Guan Daoxuan in Sichuan province who said he had lost contact with his wife late on Wednesday morning.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

Those are not typical sticking points in trade negotiations, but emotive ones in Canada, particularly in the French-speaking eastern province of Quebec, which has long sought to preserve its distinct identity.

From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026

Tens of thousands of emigrants from Ireland, desperate to escape the famine ravaging their home country, landed in 1847 at the Grosse Île quarantine station in what is now the Canadian province of Quebec.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

Previously, Everest had by and large been the province of elite mountaineers.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

Some sectors and provinces are likely to bear more pain than others, they said, and persistent uncertainty over the future of the bilateral trading relationship could weigh on business confidence and hiring and investment decisions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

Arabs within the SDF's ranks also defected en masse after Sharaa's army took control of two previously Kurdish-held provinces, Raqa and Deir Ezzor, leaving them at half their strength, according to Syria specialist Fabrice Balanche.

From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026

That boycott remains in place in 11 of the 13 Canadian provinces and territories.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026

He also claimed that Canadian provinces had restricted sales of U.S. alcoholic beverages in response to his “emergency” tariffs last year.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

Uncle even got money from some kin and friends in the eastern provinces from whom he had not heard in twenty years.

From "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep

Related Words

• colony
• county
• department
• district
• part
• region
• territory
• zone