Word.ws English Dictionary

provincial

UK/pɹəˈvɪn(t)ʃəl/

provincial adjective: of or pertaining to a province.

Adjective (1)

provincial (comparative more provincial, superlative most provincial)

  1. Of or pertaining to a province.
    • a provincial government
    • a provincial dialect
  2. Constituting a province.
  3. Exhibiting the ways or manners of a province; characteristic of the inhabitants of a province.
    • […] fond of exhibiting provincial airs and graces.1856 December, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Samuel Johnson”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green...
  4. Not cosmopolitan; limited in outlook; narrow; illiberal.
    1. (extreme degree) Backwoodsy, hick, yokelish, countrified; not polished; rude.
      • That awful little Cedar Whatever is no thriving megalopolis, and you people are so provincial, it's appalling.2011, KD McCrite, In Front of God and Everybody
  5. Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical province, or to the jurisdiction of an archbishop; not ecumenical.
    • a provincial synod

Noun

provincial (plural provincials)

  1. A person belonging to a province; one who is provincial.
  2. A monastic superior, who, under the general of his order, has the direction of all the religious houses of the same fraternity in a given district, called a province of the order.
    • The Franciscan provincial Diego de Landa set up a local Inquisition which unleashed a campaign of interrogation and torture on the Indio population.2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 700
  3. (obsolete) A constitution issued by the head of an ecclesiastical province.
    • Or els is thys Goddis law,
      Decrees or decretals,
      Or holy sinodals,
      Or els provincyals,
      Thus within the wals
      Of holy church to deale […]?c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 65, lines 130–135
  4. A country bumpkin.

Adjective (2) capitalized: Provincial

Provincial (not comparable)

  1. (obsolete) Of or pertaining to Provence; Provençal.
    • With two Provincial roses on my razed shoes.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...

provincial meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

provincial in Hindi

of or pertaining to a province
प्रांतीय prāntīya, प्रादेशिक prādeśik, आंचलिक āñclik, प्रदेशीय pradeśīya, प्रदेशी pradeśī

provincial in Tamil

மாநிலத்திற்குரிய

provincial in Marathi

प्रांतीय, प्रांतिय

provincial in Urdu

غیرمہذب, صوبائی
More languagesFewer languages
provincial in Bengali
প্রাদেশিক pradeśik
provincial in Telugu
దేశీయము dēśīyamu
provincial in Malayalam
സംസ്ഥാനീയമായ, പ്രാദേശികമായ, അപരിഷ്കൃതമായ, പ്രവിശ്യയെ സംബന്ധിച്ച
provincial in Kannada
ಪ್ರಾಂತೀಯ, ಪ್ರಾಂತ ನಿವಾಸಿ, ಪ್ರಾಂತದ ಚರ್ಚಿನ ಮುಖ್ಯಾಧಿಕಾರಿ, ಅಸಂಸ್ಕೃತ
provincial in Gujarati
પ્રાંતીય, પ્રાંતિય
provincial in Odia
ଦେଶୀୟ deśiya
provincial in Sanskrit
प्राकृत prākṛta
provincial in Nepali
प्रान्तीय
provincial in Tagalog
panlalawigan
provincial in Thai
บ้านนอก bâan-nɔ̂ɔk
provincial in Vietnamese
giám tỉnh

Examples of provincial in a sentence

  • Each province in Canada has three courts: a provincial court, a superior court, and a court of appeals.
  • The last provincial governor, Chang Ching-sen (張景森), now heads the service center.
  • The landslide hit Xiangning county in Shanxi province early Friday evening, provincial authorities said.

All 40 example sentences with provincial

Forms of provincial

Adjective
comparativemore provincial
superlativemost provincial
Noun
pluralprovincials

Origin of provincial

From Middle English provincial, from Old French provincial, from Latin prōvinciālis (“of a province”), equivalent to province + -ial.

Words formed from provincial

Phrases with provincial

Questions about provincial

What does provincial mean?
Provincial means of or pertaining to a province.
What is provincial in Hindi?
Provincial in Hindi is प्रांतीय (prāntīya), प्रादेशिक (prādeśik), आंचलिक (āñclik). See Provincial meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is provincial?
Provincial can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce provincial?
Provincial is pronounced /pɹəˈvɪn(t)ʃəl/ (UK).

Words near provincial in the dictionary

  1. provinces
  2. Provincetown
  3. Provincetowner
  4. Provincetowners
  5. provincewide
  6. provincial
  7. provincial council
  8. provincial councils
  9. provincial park
  10. provincial parks
  11. provincialate

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: provincial (page history and authors); Provincial (page history and authors); provincial (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); provincial (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); provincial (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); প্রাদেশিক (Bengali) (page history and authors); provincial (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); provincial (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); provincial (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଦେଶୀୟ (Odia) (page history and authors); प्राकृत (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); provincial (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-provincial.ogg.

Cite this entry: “provincial.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/provincial. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.