provincial

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

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /pɹəˈvɪn(t)ʃəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

provincial (comparative more provincial, superlative most provincial)

1. Of or pertaining to a province.

   a provincial government

   a provincial dialect

   • 2016 May 4, Nicky Woolf, “Fort McMurray: Canada wildfires force evacuation of oil sands city”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     More than 100 provincial and municipal firefighters were brought in, with helicopters and aircraft used to drop water and fire retardant, while bulldozers were digging firebreaks.

2. Constituting a province.
3. Exhibiting the ways or manners of a province; characteristic of the inhabitants of a province.
   • 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, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC:

     […] fond of exhibiting provincial airs and graces.

4. Not cosmopolitan; limited in outlook; narrow; illiberal.

   Coordinate term: parochial (sometimes synonymous)

   1. (extreme degree) backwoodsy, hick, yokelish, countrified; not polished; rude.

      Coordinate term: rural

      • 2011, KD McCrite, In Front of God and Everybody:

        That awful little Cedar Whatever is no thriving megalopolis, and you people are so provincial, it's appalling.

5. Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical province, or to the jurisdiction of an archbishop; not ecumenical.

   a provincial synod

provincial (plural provincials)

1. A person belonging to a province; one who is provincial.
3. (Roman Catholicism) 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.
   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 700:

     The Franciscan provincial Diego de Landa set up a local Inquisition which unleashed a campaign of interrogation and torture on the Indio population.

4. (obsolete) A constitution issued by the head of an ecclesiastical province.
   • 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:

     Or els is thys Goddis law,
     Decrees or decretals,
     Or holy sinodals,
     Or els provincyals,
     Thus within the wals
     Of holy church to deale  […]?

5. A country bumpkin.

Borrowed from Latin prōvinciālis. First attested in 1653.^[1]

• IPA^(key): (Central) [pɾu.βin.siˈal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [pɾo.vin.siˈal]
• Rhymes: -al

provincial m or f (masculine and feminine plural provincials)

1. provincial

• provincialisme

• província

• “provincial”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “provincial” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “provincial” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Learned borrowing from Latin provinciālis. By surface analysis, province +‎ -ial. Compare provençal.

• IPA^(key): /pʁɔ.vɛ̃.sjal/

• Audio (France (Brétigny-sur-Orge)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

provincial (feminine provinciale, masculine plural provinciaux, feminine plural provinciales)

1. provincial

• provincialement
• provincialisme

provincial m (plural provinciaux, feminine provinciale)

1. person from the provinces/regions

• “provincial”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

From Latin prōvinciālis. First attested in the 13th century.^[1]

provincial m (feminine singular provinciala, masculine plural provincials, feminine plural provincialas)

1. provincial

• provincialisme

• província

• Joan de Cantalausa (2006), Diccionari general occitan a partir dels parlars lengadocians‎^[3], 2nd edition, →ISBN, page 789

• IPA^(key): /pruviŋˈt͡ʃal/

provincial

1. provincial

From Latin prōvinciālis.

provincial m or f (plural provinciais)

1. provincial

• provincialismo

• província
• provinciano

• “provincial”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “provincial”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from Latin provincialis. By surface analysis, provincie +‎ -al.

• IPA^(key): /pro.vin.t͡ʃiˈal/

provincial m (plural provinciali)

1. provincial

• provincialism

From Latin prōvinciālis.

• IPA^(key): /pɾobinˈθjal/ [pɾo.β̞ĩn̟ˈθjal] (Spain, Equatorial Guinea)
• IPA^(key): /pɾobinˈsjal/ [pɾo.β̞ĩnˈsjal] (Latin America, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: pro‧vin‧cial

provincial m or f (masculine and feminine plural provinciales)

1. provincial

• “provincial”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025