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

Malcolm Timbrell, 70, and his wife Annette Kilgore, 69, lived in the village of Bédar, in Almeria province, which was consumed by flames last Thursday evening, leaving 13 people dead.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

A British couple have been found down a ravine, badly burned and semi-conscious, after being caught up in the deadly wildfires that tore through Spain's Almeria province, according to local media.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

Some 600 people evacuated from the fire zone in Spain's Almeria province returned home late on Saturday, while the remaining 1,000 evacuees will now be able to do the same in stages, Moreno said.

From Barron's ● Jul. 12, 2026

In seeking to bolster the French language, the province of Quebec encouraged immigration from French-speaking but Muslim Algeria.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

“Because I cannot. It is neither within my power nor my province to do so.”

From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee

Today, producers are concentrated in the eastern provinces of Shandong and Anhui, where farmers churn out thousands of tons of foie gras by force-feeding ducks and geese to enlarge their livers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026

Laboratory capacity has increased from 30 tests per day in the capital Kinshasa to more than 2,000 in decentralised labs in the affected provinces.

From Barron's ● Jul. 9, 2026

"Remember that provinces are sometimes a bit like people, they want to be seen and they want to be heard," he said.

From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026

In some provinces, particularly parts of Siberia and North Caucasus, residents reported having to wait overnight or longer to fill up.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026

In 1532 King Joao III of Portugal divided the coast of Brazil into fourteen provinces and dispatched colonists to each one.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Related Words

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