PROVINCIAL

Pronunciation (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does provincial mean? 

• PROVINCIAL (noun)
  The noun PROVINCIAL has 2 senses:

1. (Roman Catholic Church) an official in charge of an ecclesiastical province acting under the superior general of a religious order
2. a country person

  Familiarity information: PROVINCIAL used as a noun is rare.

• PROVINCIAL (adjective)
  The adjective PROVINCIAL has 2 senses:

1. of or associated with a province
2. characteristic of the provinces or their people

  Familiarity information: PROVINCIAL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PROVINCIAL (noun)

Meaning:

(Roman Catholic Church) an official in charge of an ecclesiastical province acting under the superior general of a religious order

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Context example:

the general of the Jesuits receives monthly reports from the provincials

Hypernyms ("provincial" is a kind of...):

functionary; official (a worker who holds or is invested with an office)

Domain category:

Church of Rome; Roman Catholic; Roman Catholic Church; Roman Church; Western Church (the Christian Church based in the Vatican and presided over by a pope and an episcopal hierarchy)

Meaning:

A country person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

bucolic; peasant; provincial

Hypernyms ("provincial" is a kind of...):

rustic (an unsophisticated country person)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "provincial"):

cottar; cotter (a peasant farmer in the Scottish highlands)

moujik; mujik; muzhik; muzjik (a Russian peasant (especially prior to 1917))

• PROVINCIAL (adjective)

Meaning:

Of or associated with a province

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

provincial government

Pertainym:

province (the territory occupied by one of the constituent administrative districts of a nation)

Meaning:

Characteristic of the provinces or their people

Context examples:

deeply provincial and conformist / in that well-educated company I felt uncomfortably provincial / narrow provincial attitudes

Similar:

bumpkinly; hick; rustic; unsophisticated (awkwardly simple and provincial)

corn-fed (strong and healthy but not sophisticated)

insular; parochial (narrowly restricted in outlook or scope)

jerkwater; one-horse; pokey; poky (small and remote and insignificant)

stay-at-home (not given to travel)

Antonym:

cosmopolitan (composed of people from or at home in many parts of the world; especially not provincial in attitudes or interests)