Adjacent Words

Provincial definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PROVIN'CIAL, a. Pertaining to a province or relating to it; as a provincial government; a provincial dialect.
1. Appendant to the principal kingdom or state; as provincial dominion; provincial territory.
2. Not polished; rude; as provincial accent or manners.
3. Pertaining to an ecclesiastical province, or to the jurisdiction of an archbishop; not ecumenical; as a provincial synod.
PROVIN'CIAL, n. A spiritual governor. In catholic countries, one who has the direction of the several convents of a province.
1. A person belonging to a province.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: of or associated with a province; "provincial government"
2: characteristic of the provinces or their people; "deeply provincial and conformist"; "in that well-educated company I felt uncomfortably provincial"; "narrow provincial attitudes" [ant: cosmopolitan] n
1: (Roman Catholic Church) an official in charge of an ecclesiastical province acting under the superior general of a religious order; "the general of the Jesuits receives monthly reports from the provincials"
2: a country person [syn: peasant, provincial, bucolic]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: in sense 1, from Middle English, from Anglo-French or Medieval Latin; Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin provincialis, from provincia ecclesiastical province; in other senses, from Latin provincialis, from provincia province Date: 14th century 1. the superior of a province of a Roman Catholic religious order 2. one living in or coming from a province 3. a. a person of local or restricted interests or outlook b. a person lacking urban polish or refinement II. adjective Date: 14th century 1. of, relating to, or coming from a province 2. a. limited in outlook ; narrow b. lacking the polish of urban society ; unsophisticated 3. of or relating to a decorative style (as in furniture) marked by simplicity, informality, and relative plainness; especially French provincial • provincially adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. 1 a of or concerning a province. b of or concerning the provinces. 2 unsophisticated or uncultured in manner, speech, opinion, etc. --n. 1 an inhabitant of a province or the provinces. 2 an unsophisticated or uncultured person. 3 Eccl. the head or chief of a province or of a religious order in a province. Derivatives: provinciality n. provincialize v.tr. (also -ise). provincially adv. Etymology: ME f. OF f. L provincialis (as PROVINCE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Provincial Pro*vin"cial, a. [L. provincialis: cf. F. provincial. See Province, and cf. Provencal.] 1. Of or pertaining to province; constituting a province; as, a provincial government; a provincial dialect. 2. Exhibiting the ways or manners of a province; characteristic of the inhabitants of a province; not cosmopolitan; countrified; not polished; rude; hence, narrow; illiberal. ``Provincial airs and graces.'' --Macaulay. 3. Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical province, or to the jurisdiction of an archbishop; not ecumenical; as, a provincial synod. --Ayliffe. 4. Of or pertaining to Provence; Provencal. [Obs.] With two Provincial roses on my razed shoes. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Provincial Pro*vin"cial, n. 1. A person belonging to a province; one who is provincial. 2. (R. C. Ch.) 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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. Provincial means connected with the parts of a country away from the capital city. Jeremy Styles, 34, was the house manager for a provincial theatre for ten years. ADJ: ADJ n 2. If you describe someone or something as provincial, you disapprove of them because you think that they are old-fashioned and boring. He decided to revamp the company's provincial image... ADJ [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Of a province, of provinces. 2. Appendant, annexed, outlying. 3. Rude, unpolished, unrefined, rustic, countrified, rural, bucolic.

Moby Thesaurus

Arcadian, agrarian, agrestic, agricultural, authoritarian, awkward, backwoods, backwoodsman, beg, beglerbeg, bey, bigot, bigoted, boorish, borne, bucolic, bumpkin, burgrave, campestral, cloddish, closed, clown, collector, confined, constricted, countrified, country, country bumpkin, country cousin, countryman, countrywoman, cramped, creedbound, deaf, deaf to reason, dey, dialect, dialectal, eparch, exarch, fanatical, farm, fellah, gauleiter, geographically limited, governor, governor-general, hayseed, hick, hidebound, hind, homespun, idiomatic, illiberal, ingenuous, innocent, insular, khedive, lieutenant governor, limited, little, little-minded, local, localized, loutish, lowland, mean, mean-minded, mean-spirited, muzhik, nabob, naive, narrow, narrow-hearted, narrow-minded, narrow-souled, narrow-spirited, nawab, nearsighted, oafish, of a place, outland, palatine, parochial, pastoral, peasant, peon, petty, proconsul, purblind, regional, rude, rural, rustic, satrap, sectarian, shortsighted, small, small-minded, small-town, stadtholder, straitlaced, stuffy, subahdar, tetrarch, topical, uncatholic, uncharitable, uncultivated, uncultured, ungenerous, ungraceful, uninformed, unliberal, unpolished, unrefined, unsophisticated, upland, vali, vernacular, vice-king, viceroy, wali, yokel