provincial 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]

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, bucolic]

English

Etymology

From provincialis, confer Provencal.

Pronunciation

• /pɹɒviʃəl̩/

Adjective

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.
   • Macaulay,

     Provincial airs and graces.

3. Not cosmopolitan; countrified; not polished; rude; hence, narrow; illiberal.
   • Ayliffe,

     Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical province, or to the jurisdiction of an archbishop; not ecumenical; as, a provincial synod.

4. Of or pertaining to Provence; Provencal.
   • William Shakespeare,

     With two Provincial roses on my razed shoes.

5. limited in outlook; narrow

Noun

1. A person belonging to a province; one who is provincial.
2. (Roman Catholic Church): 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.
3. A country bumpkin.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pʁɔ.vɛ̃.sjal/
• SAMPA: /pRO.vE~.sjal/

Adjective

provincial

1. provincial

Related terms

• province
• provincialement
• provincialisme

Provincial has several meanings and may refer to:

• Provincial examinations: Bi-annual province-wide examinations for students between the grades of 10 to 12 in the province of British Columbia
• Anything related to a province, a formal geographical division;
• Figurative: someone who has a limited, restricted, or non-sophisticated mentality or habits, stereotypical of an inhabitant of "the provinces". See: parochialism
• A provincial superior of a religious order
• The Provincial sector of British Rail, which was later renamed Regional Railways

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