provincial

American  

[pruh-vin-shuhl] / prəˈvɪn ʃəl /

adjective

1. belonging or peculiar to some particular province; local.

   the provincial newspaper.

2. of or relating to the provinces.

   provincial customs; provincial dress.

3. 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

4. (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.

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

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noun

1. a person who lives in or comes from the provinces.

2. a person who lacks urban sophistication or broad-mindedness.

3. Ecclesiastical.

   1. the head of an ecclesiastical province.

   2. a member of a religious order presiding over the order in a given district or province.

provincial British  

/ prəˈvɪnʃəl, prəˌvɪnʃɪˈælɪtɪ /

adjective

1. of or connected with a province

2. characteristic of or connected with the provinces; local

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

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

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noun

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

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

3. the head of an ecclesiastical province

4. the head of a major territorial subdivision of a religious order

Other Word Forms

• interprovincial adjective
• nonprovincial adjective
• nonprovincially adverb
• provinciality noun
• provincially adverb
• quasi-provincial adjective
• quasi-provincially adverb
• semiprovincial adjective
• semiprovincially adverb
• subprovincial adjective
• unprovincial adjective
• unprovincially adverb

Etymology

Origin of provincial

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English (noun and adjective), from Latin prōvinciālis, from prōvinci(a) province + -ālis -al ¹

Example Sentences

Now rulings by courts, the provincial government and Ottawa may undermine the sanctity of their contracts.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 29, 2026

I hope that dialogue between the Trump administration, state governors, Canada’s provincial premiers and the leader of the official opposition party will generate an improved economic partnership of mutual benefit.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 25, 2026

The RN also showed its strength in small provincial towns, with victories in Montargis, Carcassonne and La Seyne-sur-Mer, though it lost the mayoralty of Villers-Cotterets north of Paris.

From BBC • Mar. 22, 2026

The outages as well as regular shortages of food, medicine and other basics are spurring frustrations, with demonstrators vandalizing a provincial office of the Cuban Communist Party last weekend.

From Barron's • Mar. 21, 2026

Johannes Kepler was born in Germany in 1571 and sent as a boy to the Protestant seminary school in the provincial town of Maulbronn to be educated for the clergy.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Related Words

• local
• rural