provide

[ pruh-vahyd ]

verb (used with object)

, pro·vid·ed, pro·vid·ing.

1. to make available; furnish:

   to provide employees with various benefits.

   Synonyms: render, give

2. to supply or equip:

   to provide the army with new fighter planes.

3. to afford or yield.

   Synonyms: produce

4. Law. to arrange for or stipulate beforehand, as by a provision or proviso.
5. Archaic. to prepare or procure beforehand.

verb (used without object)

, pro·vid·ed, pro·vid·ing.

1. to take measures with due foresight (usually followed by for or against ).
2. to make arrangements for supplying means of support, money, etc. (usually followed by for ):

   He provided for his children in his will.

3. to supply means of support (often followed by for ):

   to provide for oneself.

provide

/ prəˈvaɪd /

verb

1. to put at the disposal of; furnish or supply
2. to afford; yield

   this meeting provides an opportunity to talk

3. intr; often foll by for or against to take careful precautions (over)

   he provided against financial ruin by wise investment

4. intrfoll byfor to supply means of support (to), esp financially

   he provides for his family

5. (in statutes, documents, etc) to determine (what is to happen in certain contingencies), esp by including a proviso condition
6. to confer and induct into ecclesiastical offices
7. rare.
   to have or get in store

   in summer many animals provide their winter food

Derived Forms

• proˈvider, noun

Other Words From

• pro·vida·ble adjective
• over·pro·vide verb (used with object) overprovided overproviding
• prepro·vide verb (used with object) preprovided preproviding
• unpro·vida·ble adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of provide¹

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English providen, Latin prōvidēre “to foresee, look after, provide for,” equivalent to prō- pro- ¹ + vidēre “to see”; video ( def )

Word History and Origins

Origin of provide¹

C15: from Latin prōvidēre to provide for, from prō- beforehand + vidēre to see

Example Sentences

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was “shocked” by the nomination, saying it reaffirmed the need for the Senate to hold on to its constitutional duty of providing “advice and consent.”

From Salon

Suspending Ms Robinson from the nursing register for a year, the panel said while she had "provided evidence of developing insight, remorse and reflection", there remained "insufficient evidence of full remediation".

From BBC

Meta said the Commission had provided "no evidence" of harm either to competitors or consumers.

From BBC

Los Angeles County got a gift from voters: They passed Measure A, a half-cent-per-dollar sales tax that will provide a billion dollars a year for services and housing for homeless people.

From Los Angeles Times

Under current rules, councils in England providing social care services can increase tax rates by up to 5%, while others can increase rates by up to 3%.

From BBC

Related Words

• afford
• allow
• bring
• grant
• lend
• present
• produce
• render
• serve
• yield

More About Provide

Where does provide come from?

For many, the word provide might conjure up tangible objects you can hand over, like food, supplies, goods, or money. Provide may also bring to mind less concrete things that can nevertheless be given or furnished, such as answers or solutions or responses. So, it might surprise you to learn that the root of provide isn’t about the sense of touch—but vision.

Provide entered English around 1375–1425. It comes from the Latin prōvidēre, meaning “to foresee, look after, provide for.” The underlying idea of this verb is seeing something at a distance or beforehand, and when you can see something coming, you can make arrangements and prepare supplies for it. We call such arrangements and supplies provisions, a word that is also derived from prōvidēre.

The Latin prōvidēre is composed of two parts. The first part is prō-, a widely used prefix based on the preposition prō, meaning “before, in front of.” The second part is vidēre, meaning “to see, look at.”

Prō- appears in many words English borrowed from Latin, such as these verbs:

• procure
• produce
• prohibit
• profess
• protract
• protrude

The verb vidēre is the ultimate source of a lot of English words, many of which entered English through French. Some more familiar derivatives include view, video, vision, visual, visit, and vista. Other derivatives are less obvious and even surprising:

• advice
• advise
• clairvoyant
• envy
• evidence
• improvise
• invidious
• proviso
• purvey
• purview
• review
• revise
• supervise
• survey
• visa
• visage
• voyeur

Did you know ... ?

The word provide, etymologically speaking, is all about seeing—and as a result, planning for—things ahead of time. Another word for this quality is foresight. And a synonym for foresight is yet another word that comes from the Latin prōvidēre: providence.

When you are careful about providing for the future, you are prudent. Want to provide a guess as to the root of the word prudent? Yes, it also ultimately derives from prōvidēre.

Discover more about providence and prudent at our entries for those words.