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

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Etymology

Origin of province

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

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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

In August, Carney joined Quebec and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador in announcing a massive new hydroelectric development near their shared border, facilitated by a $7 billion federal investment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

The facility, operated from a church in Mpumalanga province, was discovered during an operation by officials in the area on Thursday.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026

A spokesman for the emergency rescue service in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said schoolchildren were crushed and trapped after the roof gave way.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026

Alfozan grew up in an eastern province of Saudi Arabia, where his father was a lecturer at a technical college, he said in the podcast interview.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

He had been “initiated into an entirely new province of knowledge,” he wrote glowingly to Darwin.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

The new country set to work building a railway connecting British Columbia, which joined in 1871, to the eastern provinces.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

The forestry department in the same statement said there was a significant jump in hotspots in several areas in six "priority provinces" where 615 so-called hotspots were detected.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

Permits for build multifamily dwellings drove the rise, increasing 23.8% during the month, with Ontario leading gains by seven provinces and two territories.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026

The man, whose identity has not been made public, had lived in DR Congo for seven years and had travelled across three of its provinces on business.

From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026

The French had suffered a humiliating defeat in their war with Germany in 1870–71, when France was forced to surrender the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, a loss that France could neither forgive nor forget.

From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman

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Related Words

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

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