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provide
[ pruh-vahyd ]
verb (used with object)
- to make available; furnish:
to provide employees with various benefits.
- to supply or equip:
to provide the army with new fighter planes.
- to afford or yield.
Synonyms: produce
- Law. to arrange for or stipulate beforehand, as by a provision or proviso.
- Archaic. to prepare or procure beforehand.
verb (used without object)
- to take measures with due foresight (usually followed by for or against ).
- to make arrangements for supplying means of support, money, etc. (usually followed by for ):
He provided for his children in his will.
- to supply means of support (often followed by for ):
to provide for oneself.
provide
/ prəˈvaɪd /
verb
- to put at the disposal of; furnish or supply
- to afford; yield
this meeting provides an opportunity to talk
- intr; often foll by for or against to take careful precautions (over)
he provided against financial ruin by wise investment
- intrfoll byfor to supply means of support (to), esp financially
he provides for his family
- (in statutes, documents, etc) to determine (what is to happen in certain contingencies), esp by including a proviso condition
- to confer and induct into ecclesiastical offices
- rare.to have or get in store
in summer many animals provide their winter food
Derived Forms
- proˈvider, noun
Other Words From
- pro·vida·ble adjective
- over·pro·vide verb (used with object) overprovided overproviding
- prepro·vide verb (used with object) preprovided preproviding
- unpro·vida·ble adjective
Word History and Origins
Origin of provide1
Word History and Origins
Origin of provide1
Example Sentences
These initiation sites contain regulatory elements and provide information to the cell about when and where to transcribe each gene to make protein, and how frequently to do so at any point in time.
While many brokers deleted personal identifiers, some provided names and addresses of individuals seeking mental health assistance, according to the report.
Lambeth Palace said more details would be provided on this arrangement "in due course".
Club Dreigiau Dâr was set up in Aberdare last year to provide football for girls and boys aged seven to 11, no matter their skill level or financial background.
After careful evaluation of the extensive data, the results are now available: they provide detailed information on changes in the morphology and structure of the material, but also on chemical processes during discharge.
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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:
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:
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.
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