provincial
Americanadjective
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belonging or peculiar to some particular province; local.
the provincial newspaper.
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of or relating to the provinces.
provincial customs; provincial dress.
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having or showing the manners, viewpoints, etc., considered characteristic of unsophisticated inhabitants of a province; rustic; narrow or illiberal; parochial.
a provincial point of view.
- Synonyms:
- small-town, rural
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(often initial capital letter) noting or pertaining to the styles of architecture, furniture, etc., found in the provinces, especially when imitating styles currently or formerly in fashion in or around the capital.
Italian Provincial.
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History/Historical. of or relating to any of the American provinces of Great Britain.
adjective
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of or connected with a province
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characteristic of or connected with the provinces; local
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having attitudes and opinions supposedly common to people living in the provinces; rustic or unsophisticated; limited
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denoting a football team representing a province, one of the historical administrative areas of New Zealand
noun
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a person lacking the sophistications of city life; rustic or narrow-minded individual
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a person coming from or resident in a province or the provinces
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the head of an ecclesiastical province
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the head of a major territorial subdivision of a religious order
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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provincialitynoun
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interprovincialadjective
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nonprovincialadjective
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quasi-provincialadjective
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semiprovincialadjective
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subprovincialadjective
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unprovincialadjective
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nonprovinciallyadverb
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provinciallyadverb
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quasi-provinciallyadverb
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semiprovinciallyadverb
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unprovinciallyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of provincial
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English (noun and adjective), from Latin prōvinciālis, from prōvinci(a) province + -ālis -al 1
Explanation
A provincial person comes from the backwaters. Someone from a small province outside of Provence, France, might seem a little more provincial and less worldly than someone from, say, Paris. Something or someone provincial belongs to a province, or region outside of the city. Provincial has a straightforward meaning when describing where someone is from, but it has some other shades of meaning too. Something provincial can be quaint and in a pleasing rural or country style, but it also can imply someone less sophisticated, as in someone with provincial, or simple, tastes. Individuals or groups of people who are considered narrow-minded are often labeled provincial, even if they're from the city.
Vocabulary lists containing provincial
The Great Gatsby
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Grade 11, List 5
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Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress
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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.
See Examples For:
On Tuesday dozens of PTI supporters took to the streets in Bara, Khyber district, hometown of provincial Chief Minister Sohail Afridi.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
Meanwhile, the Parti Québécois won enough seats in last week’s provincial election to form a separatist minority government.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
Mahmood Ul Islam, a 72-year-old lawyer in Kohat, south of Peshawar, told AFP he welcomed the emergency order, accusing the provincial government of "incompetence".
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
The provincial government urged communities to help police with the investigation, saying tackling crime remained a priority.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
It did not raise the specter of intimidation as Manhattan did; it was intimate but not provincial, a city that might yet be kind to you.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In the revised system, provincials had to pay roughly 1 percent tax on their wealth, which included their assets in the form of land, as well as a flat poll tax.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
Living in isolated colonies far removed from the received political wisdom of Europe, these provincials were free to experiment with fresh ideas, such as the then-radical notion of sovereignty divided between national and state governments.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 7, 2020
Naturally, to provincials in a military zone such as the one stretching south from Hadrian’s Wall, the implications tended to be alarming.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 28, 2019
The characters’ hard-won wisdom, a theme throughout Rousseau’s novels and other works, made them as popular with Kant, in Königsberg, as with quietly desperate provincials throughout Europe.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 25, 2016
He knew how well the provincials were arming, preparing to welcome him.
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
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.
