PROVINCIAL
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)
