provincial

See also: Provincial

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

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

Derived terms

• comprovincial
• ecoprovincial
• extraprovincial
• interprovincial
• intraprovincial
• multiprovincial
• nonprovincial
• provincialate
• provincial capital
• provincial council
• provincialist
• provinciality
• provincialization
• provincialize
• provincially
• provincial park
• subprovincial
• transprovincial
• unprovincial

Translations

of or pertaining to a province

• Armenian: գավառական (hy) (gavaṙakan)
• Bulgarian: провинциа́лен (bg) (provinciálen)
• Catalan: provincial (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 省的 (zh) (shěng de), 地方的 (zh) (dìfang de)

• Danish: provinsiel
• Dutch: provinciaal (nl)
• Emilian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: maakunnallinen (fi)
• French: provincial (fr)
• Friulian: provinciâl
• Galician: provincial (gl)
• Georgian: პროვინციული (ṗrovinciuli)
• German: provinziell (de), provinzial
• Greek: επαρχιακός (el) (eparchiakós)
• Hindi: प्रांतीय (hi) (prāntīya), प्रादेशिक (hi) (prādeśik), आंचलिक (hi) (āñclik)
• Hungarian: tartományi (hu)
• Italian: provinciale (it)
• Kazakh: шет аймақтық (şet aimaqtyq)
• Latin: provincialis
• Ligurian: provinciâle
• Lombard: provincial (lmo)
• Occitan: provincial
• Piedmontese: provincial
• Polish: prowincjonalny (pl) m, prowincjonalna f, prowincjonalne n, prowincjonalni vir, prowincjonalne nvir
• Portuguese: provincial
• Romagnol: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: провинциа́льный (ru) (provinciálʹnyj)
• Spanish: provincial (es)
• Tagalog: panlalawigan
• Telugu: దేశీయము (te) (dēśīyamu)
• Ukrainian: провінці́йний (provincíjnyj), провінціа́льний (provinciálʹnyj)
• Volapük: provinik (vo), (older word, obsolete) plovinik

exhibiting the ways or manners of a province

• Armenian: գավառական (hy) (gavaṙakan)
• Bulgarian: провинциа́лен (bg) (provinciálen)
• Catalan: provincià
• Finnish: maalaismainen (fi), maalainen (fi), provinsiaalinen
• Georgian: პროვინციული (ṗrovinciuli)
• Hungarian: provinciális (hu)
• Portuguese: interiorano, provinciano (pt)
• Russian: провинциа́льный (ru) (provinciálʹnyj)
• Spanish: provinciano (es)

not cosmopolitan or polished

• Armenian: գավառական (hy) (gavaṙakan)
• Finnish: maalaismainen (fi), maalainen (fi)
• Georgian: პროვინციული (ṗrovinciuli)
• Greek: επαρχιώτικος (el) (eparchiótikos), χωριάτικος (el) (choriátikos)
• Spanish: provinciano (es), paleto (es)
• Thai: บ้านนอก (th) (bâan-nɔ̂ɔk)

of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical province

• Finnish: hiippakunnallinen (of diocese); arkkihiippakunnallinen (of archdiocese)

limited in outlook; narrow

• Finnish: kapeakatseinen (fi), nurkkakuntainen
• Hungarian: provinciális (hu)

Noun

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.

Translations

monastic superior who directs a province of an order

• Bulgarian: архиепископ (bg) m (arhiepiskop)
• Hungarian: provinciális (hu)
• Vietnamese: giám tỉnh

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin prōvinciālis. First attested in 1653.

Pronunciation

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

Adjective

provincial m or f (masculine and feminine plural provincials)

1. provincial

Derived terms

• provincialisme

Related terms

• província

Further reading

• “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.

French

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʁɔ.vɛ̃.sjal/

• Audio (France (Brétigny-sur-Orge)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Adjective

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

1. provincial

Derived terms

• provincialement
• provincialisme

Noun

provincial m (plural provinciaux, feminine provinciale)

1. person from the provinces/regions

Further reading

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

Occitan

Etymology

From Latin prōvinciālis. First attested in the 13th century.

Adjective

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

1. provincial

Derived terms

• provincialisme

Related terms

• província

Further reading

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

Piedmontese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pruviŋˈt͡ʃal/

Adjective

provincial

1. provincial

Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin prōvinciālis.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /pɾo.vĩ.siˈaw/ [pɾo.vĩ.sɪˈaʊ̯], (faster pronunciation) /pɾo.vĩˈsjaw/ [pɾo.vĩˈsjaʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /pɾu.vĩˈsjal/ [pɾu.vĩˈsjaɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /pɾu.vĩˈsjal/ [pɾu.vĩˈsjaɫ]
  • (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /pɾu.bĩˈsjal/ [pɾu.βĩˈsjaɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /pɾu.vĩˈsja.li/

Adjective

provincial m or f (plural provinciais)

1. provincial

Derived terms

• provincialismo

Related terms

• província
• provinciano

Further reading

• “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

Romanian

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pro.vin.t͡ʃiˈal/

Noun

provincial m (plural provinciali)

1. provincial

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	provincial	provincialul		provinciali	provincialii
genitive-dative	provincial	provincialului		provinciali	provincialilor
vocative	provincialule			provincialilor

Related terms

• provincialism

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin prōvinciālis.

Pronunciation

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

Adjective

provincial m or f (masculine and feminine plural provinciales)

1. provincial

Derived terms

• audiencia provincial
• diputación provincial
• provincialismo
• provincialista
• provincializar

Related terms

• provincia

Further reading

• “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