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

The province of Quebec held two referendums on independence, in 1980 and 1995.

From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2026

Feelings of alienation have long ebbed and flowed in Alberta, a traditionally conservative province, home to the world’s fourth-largest proven oil reserves.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026

Smith said she would address Albertans later on Tuesday on the path forward for the province.

From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2026

The debris was found on Monday morning by a plantation worker in Indonesian Borneo, after residents reported hearing a loud bang the previous evening over a remote area of Central Kalimantan province.

From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026

Permian recalls the former Russian province of Perm in the Ural Mountains.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

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

She toured remote provinces rarely visited by international journalists in recent years thanks to government restrictions and the difficulty of procuring fuel.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

Most Canadian provinces have also stopped selling US liquor.

From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026

The casualties in Thailand have occurred in three eastern provinces since September 16, according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, with none reported in the capital.

From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026

French troops had attacked German Alsace-Lorraine, confident that they could recover those two lost provinces.

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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