provincial

[pruh-vin-shuhl]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR provincial ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

belonging or peculiar to some particular province; local: the provincial newspaper.

of or relating to the provinces: provincial customs; provincial dress.

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.

(often initial capital letter) Fine Arts. 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.

History/Historical. of or relating to any of the American provinces of Great Britain.

noun

a person who lives in or comes from the provinces.

a person who lacks urban sophistication or broad-mindedness.

Ecclesiastical.

the head of an ecclesiastical province.
a member of a religious order presiding over the order in a given district or province.

Origin of provincial

1300–50; Middle English (noun and adj.) < Latin prōvinciālis. See province, -al¹

Related formspro·vin·cial·ly, adverbin·ter·pro·vin·cial, adjectivenon·pro·vin·cial, adjectivenon·pro·vin·cial·ly, adverbqua·si-pro·vin·cial, adjectivequa·si-pro·vin·cial·ly, adverbsem·i·pro·vin·cial, adjectivesem·i·pro·vin·cial·ly, adverbsub·pro·vin·cial, adjective, nounun·pro·vin·cial, adjectiveun·pro·vin·cial·ly, adverb

Can be confusedprovidential provincial

Synonyms for provincial

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR provincial ON THESAURUS.COM

3. rural, small-town.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for provincial

rural, local, petty, pastoral, homespun, bucolic, country, sectarian, rustic, narrow, bigoted, homegrown, insular, narrow-minded, parochial, rude, small-minded, uninformed, unpolished, unsophisticated

Examples from the Web for provincial

Contemporary Examples of provincial

She tells us how little the federal and provincial governments have done to regulate the tar sands.
Our Trip to The Climate War's Ground Zero
Darren Aronofsky
September 19, 2014
Twenty years ago it would have been laughable to believe that English provincial cuisine could match French provincial cuisine.
A British Start to the Tour de France Forces the English to Wonder: What Does Being English Mean Anymore?
Clive Irving
July 6, 2014
In a province with tens of thousands of Iraq Security Forces, Tikrit, the provincial capital, was seized without a fight.
The Paper Tiger of the Tigris: How ISIS Took Tikrit Without a Fight
Andrew Slater
June 29, 2014
And on Tuesday, a candidate for a provincial office and nine of his supporters were kidnapped and killed by the Taliban.
Would You Risk Your Life to Vote? It Looks Like 7 Million Afghans Did.
Dean Obeidallah
April 7, 2014
In July, parliament lowered its quota for female lawmakers on provincial councils from 25 percent to 20 percent.
Legalized Spousal Abuse Is Coming to Afghanistan
Nina Strochlic
February 13, 2014

Historical Examples of provincial

The provincial captains are drumming up for soldiers, in every newspaper.
Old News
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The provincial Congress, which had adjourned, immediately re-assembled.
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXII No. 4, April 1848
Various
Before the furor of 1876, how many scores of provincial English had?
The First Violin
Jessie Fothergill
A man such as this was never intended to succeed in a provincial town.
The Fortune of the Rougons
Emile Zola
They sat at all the meetings of National and Provincial and Regional committees.
Herbert Hoover
Vernon Kellogg

British Dictionary definitions for provincial

provincial

adjective

of or connected with a province

characteristic of or connected with the provinces; local

having attitudes and opinions supposedly common to people living in the provinces; rustic or unsophisticated; limited

NZ denoting a football team representing a province, one of the historical administrative areas of New Zealand

noun

a person lacking the sophistications of city life; rustic or narrow-minded individual

a person coming from or resident in a province or the provinces

the head of an ecclesiastical province

the head of a major territorial subdivision of a religious order

Derived Formsprovinciality (prəˌvɪnʃɪˈælɪtɪ), nounprovincially, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for provincial

adj.

late 14c., "pertaining to a province," from Old French provincial "belonging to a particular province (of friars)" (13c.), from Latin provincialis "of a province," from provincia (see province).

Meaning "of the small towns and countryside" (as opposed to the capital and urban center) is from 1630s, a borrowed idiom from French, transferred from sense of "particular to the province," hence "local." Suggestive of rude, petty, or narrow society by 1755. Classical Latin provincialis seems not to have had this tinge. In British use, with reference to the American colonies, from 1680s.

late 14c., "ecclesiastical head of a province," from provincial (adj.). From c.1600 as "native or inhabitant of a province;" from 1711 as "country person."