Etymology

Inherited from Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#PROVINCECategory:English terms derived from Middle English#PROVINCE provynce, from Anglo-NormanCategory:English terms derived from Anglo-Norman#PROVINCE province, Old FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Old French#PROVINCE province, from LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#PROVINCE prōvincia, seemingly corresponding to prō- (“forward”) +‎ vinciō (“to bind, bind about, fetter, tie, fasten, surround, encircle”). Displaced Old English boldġetæl.

Pronunciation

• enPR: prŏv′ĭns
• (Received Pronunciation, standard Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɒv.ɪns/; (also Canada, dialectal) /ˈpɹɑv.ɪns/Category:English 2-syllable words#PROVINCECategory:English 2-syllable words#PROVINCECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#PROVINCE
• (General American) IPA^(key): (without the cot–caught merger) /ˈpɹɔv.ɪns/, (cot–caught merger) /ˈpɹɑv.ɪns/Category:English 2-syllable words#PROVINCECategory:English 2-syllable words#PROVINCECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#PROVINCE

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

    Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#PROVINCE
• (General Australian, Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɔv.ɪns/Category:English 2-syllable words#PROVINCECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#PROVINCE
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɒv.əns/Category:English 2-syllable words#PROVINCECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#PROVINCE
• (India) IPA^(key): /ˈpɾɔv.ɪns/Category:English 2-syllable words#PROVINCECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#PROVINCE
• Rhymes: -ɒvɪnsCategory:Rhymes:English/ɒvɪns#PROVINCECategory:Rhymes:English/ɒvɪns/2 syllables#PROVINCE
• Hyphenation: prov‧ince

Noun

province (plural provinces)Category:English lemmas#PROVINCECategory:English nouns#PROVINCECategory:English countable nouns#PROVINCECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#PROVINCECategory:Pages with entries#PROVINCECategory:Pages with 8 entries#PROVINCE

1. A region of the earth or of a continent; a district or country. [from 14th c.]
   • 1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Geographical Distribution—continued”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, pages 408–409:

     […] we should find, as we do find, some groups of beings greatly, and some only slightly modified,—[…]—in the different great geographical provinces of the world.

     Category:English terms with quotations#PROVINCE

3. An administrative subdivision of certain countries, including Canada and China. [from 14th c.]
   • 1798 October 20 [1797], “CALCULATIONS OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE GLOBE.”, in The Rural Magazine‎, volume I, number 36, Newark, →OCLC, page 2, column 1:

     Chowta-Zhin, who is ſaid to be a man of buſineſs and preciſion, and cautious of advancing facts, at the requeſt of Earl Macartney, delivered to him a ſtatement taken from one of the public officers in the capitol, of the inhabitants of the fifteen ancient provinces of China, or China proper, within the great wall ; according to which the number of inhabitants, taken by a regular enumeration, amounts to 333,000,000!

     Category:English terms with quotations#PROVINCE

   • 1911 October 16 [1911 October 15], “CENSOR STOPS REVOLT NEWS.; Troops Moving South, but Number Concealed -- Train Service Reduced.”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 August 2023, page 6‎:

     The telegraph administration refuses to transmit messages either to or from the Provinces of Hu-Peh, Hu-Nan, Kiang-Si, Sze-Chuan, Kwei-Chow, and Yu-Nan^{[sic – meaning Yun-Nan]}.

     Category:English terms with quotations#PROVINCE

   • 1957, Chiang Chung-cheng (Kai-shek), “China's Struggle Against Communism: Gains and Losses”, in Soviet Russia in China: A Summing-up at Seventy‎, New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 236:

     After the Hsuchow-Pengpu Battle,* with the exception of the battles fought on Tengpu Island and Kinmen Island,** Government troops put up no determined fight, and, as a result, province after province on the mainland fell into Communist hands.

     Category:English terms with quotations#PROVINCE

   • 2016 May 4, Nicky Woolf, “Fort McMurray: Canada wildfires force evacuation of oil sands city”, in The Guardian‎:

     All of Fort McMurray, with the exception of Parson’s Creek, was under a mandatory evacuation order on Tuesday, said Robin Smith, press secretary for the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo in the Canadian province [of Alberta].

     Category:English terms with quotations#PROVINCE

   • 2017 July 30, Greg Jorgenson, “Thailand’s 77 provinces: 77 great places to go”, in CNN‎:

     Doi Inthanon National Park covers 482.40 square kilometers. As one of Thailand’s most popular provinces for tourists, Chiang Mai has plenty of great attractions but one of the best has to be Doi Inthanon National Park.

     Category:English terms with quotations#PROVINCE

   • 2023 April 27, Laura He, “China may have to bail out one of its poorest provinces”, in CNN Business‎:

     One of China’s poorest and most indebted provinces has admitted defeat in trying to sort out its finances and is appealing to Beijing for help to avert default. […] The Beijing-based firm — one of four funds created by the Chinese government in 1999 to process the bad loans of state-owned banks — announced Saturday that it would send a group of 50 experts to the province to help it “prevent and defuse risks” and “bail out” the real estate industry.

     Category:English terms with quotations#PROVINCE

   • 2023 September 26, Hafsa Khalil, “Electric blue tarantula species discovered in Thailand”, in CNN‎:

     A group of Thai researchers found the spider during an expedition to Phang-Nga province in southern Thailand to research the diversity and distribution of tarantulas in the country.

     Category:English terms with quotations#PROVINCE

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:province.
4. (historicalCategory:English terms with historical senses#PROVINCE, Ancient RomeCategory:en:Ancient Rome#PROVINCE, Roman EmpireCategory:en:Roman Empire#PROVINCE) An area outside Italy which is administered by a Roman governor or prefect. [from 14th c.]

   Synonym: eparchy (formal equivalent to Latin prōvincia in Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire)

   • 2008 November 28, Mark Brown, The Guardian:

     He reminded his audience of events in 88BC, when the same Mithridates invaded the Roman province of Asia, on the western coast of Turkey.

     Category:English terms with quotations#PROVINCE

5. (ChristianityCategory:en:Christianity#PROVINCE) An area under the jurisdiction of an archbishop, typically comprising a number of adjacent dioceses. [from 14th c.]
   • 1838 January, The Churchman; […], volume 4, number 1, page 44:

     In 1309, neither the Archbishop of Canterbury nor his suffragans would attend in Parliament while the Archbishop of York had the cross borne erect before him in the province of Canterbury.

     Category:English terms with quotations#PROVINCE

6. (Roman CatholicismCategory:en:Roman Catholicism#PROVINCE) An area under the jurisdiction of a provincial within a monastic order.
7. (in the plural, chiefly with definite article) The parts of a country outside its national capital. [from 17th c.]
   • 1937 April 1, The Guardian:

     To-day the first part of the new Indian Constitution comes into force with the granting of a large measure of autonomy to the provinces.

     Category:English terms with quotations#PROVINCE

   • 2023 February 7, Yevgeny Legalov, “'I Couldn't Just Stand By': Russian Fighters Explain Why They Took Up Arms Against The Kremlin”, in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty‎, archived from the original on 7 February 2023:

     "What are the Russian provinces?" he said. "Dirt, ruins, poverty, drunkenness. That is what we need to be working on, rather than expanding our prison to include Georgia, Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Belarus. That is the kind of Russian nationalist that I am…. There is no sense in using force to hold people that don’t want to be with you."

     Category:English terms with quotations#PROVINCE

9. (geologyCategory:en:Geology#PROVINCE) A major region defined by common geologic attributes and history.
10. An area of activity, responsibility or knowledge; the proper concern of a particular person or concept. [from 17th c.]
    • 1941 February, “Notes and News: Women on Soviet Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 82:

      More than half a million women are now employed on the railways of the Soviet Union, and some of them perform such duties as those of engine drivers and stationmasters, formerly considered the sole province of men.

      Category:English terms with quotations#PROVINCE

    • 1984, Dorothee Sölle, translated by Robert Kimber and Rita Kimber, The Strength of the Weak: Toward a Christian Feminist Identity‎, →ISBN, page 37:

      Just as money is the province of the economy and truth the province of science and scholarship, so love is the province of the family (Niklas Luhmann).

      Category:English terms with quotations#PROVINCE

Further reading

• “province, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “province, n.”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 4805.
• “province, n.”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “province, n.”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volume IV, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 4805.
• “province”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Etymology

Borrowed from LatinCategory:French terms borrowed from Latin#PROVINCECategory:French terms derived from Latin#PROVINCE prōvincia. Doublet of ProvenceCategory:French doublets#PROVINCE.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʁɔ.vɛ̃s/Category:French 2-syllable words#PROVINCECategory:French terms with IPA pronunciation#PROVINCE

  • Audio (France); “une province” [yn pʁɔ.vɛ̃s]:

    (file)

    Category:French terms with audio pronunciation#PROVINCE

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

  Category:French terms with audio pronunciation#PROVINCE

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

  Category:French terms with audio pronunciation#PROVINCE

• Audio (Somain (France)):

  (file)

  Category:French terms with audio pronunciation#PROVINCE

• Audio (Mulhouse (France)):

  (file)

  Category:French terms with audio pronunciation#PROVINCE
• Rhymes: -ɛ̃sCategory:Rhymes:English/ɛ̃s#PROVINCECategory:Rhymes:English/ɛ̃s/2 syllables#PROVINCE
• Hyphenation: pro‧vince

Noun

province f (plural provinces)Category:French lemmas#PROVINCECategory:French nouns#PROVINCECategory:French countable nouns#PROVINCECategory:French entries with incorrect language header#PROVINCECategory:French feminine nouns#PROVINCECategory:Pages with entries#PROVINCECategory:Pages with 8 entries#PROVINCE

2. province
4. (ParisCategory:Parisian French#PROVINCE, sometimes derogatoryCategory:French derogatory terms#PROVINCE) the countryside; or more broadly, the rest of metropolitan France, outside Paris

References

Further reading

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /proˈvin.t͡ʃe/Category:Italian 3-syllable words#PROVINCECategory:Italian terms with IPA pronunciation#PROVINCE
• Rhymes: -intʃeCategory:Rhymes:Italian/intʃe#PROVINCECategory:Rhymes:Italian/intʃe/3 syllables#PROVINCE
• Hyphenation: pro‧vìn‧ce

Noun

provinceCategory:Italian non-lemma forms#PROVINCECategory:Italian noun forms#PROVINCECategory:Italian entries with incorrect language header#PROVINCECategory:Pages with entries#PROVINCECategory:Pages with 8 entries#PROVINCE

1. plural of provincia

   Alternative form: provincie

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [proːˈwɪŋ.kɛ]Category:Latin 3-syllable words#PROVINCECategory:Latin terms with IPA pronunciation#PROVINCE
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [proˈvin̠ʲ.t͡ʃe]Category:Latin 3-syllable words#PROVINCECategory:Latin terms with IPA pronunciation#PROVINCE
• Hyphenation: prō‧vin‧ce

Verb

prōvinceCategory:Latin non-lemma forms#PROVINCECategory:Latin verb forms#PROVINCECategory:Latin entries with incorrect language header#PROVINCECategory:Pages with entries#PROVINCECategory:Pages with 8 entries#PROVINCE

1. second-person singular present active imperative of prōvincō

Noun

provinceCategory:Middle English alternative forms#PROVINCECategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#PROVINCECategory:Pages with entries#PROVINCECategory:Pages with 8 entries#PROVINCE

1. alternative form of provynce

Noun

province f (plural provinces)Category:Middle French lemmas#PROVINCECategory:Middle French nouns#PROVINCECategory:Middle French entries with incorrect language header#PROVINCECategory:Middle French feminine nouns#PROVINCECategory:Pages with entries#PROVINCECategory:Pages with 8 entries#PROVINCECategory:Middle French countable nouns#PROVINCE

1. province (subdivision of a territory)
   • 15th century, Rustichello da Pisa (original author), Mazarine Master (scribe), The Travels of Marco Polo, page 14:

     Elle est moult grant province.

     It is a big province.

     Category:Middle French terms with quotations#PROVINCE

References

• province on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)

Alternative forms

• provinz, pruvince

Noun

province oblique singular, f (oblique plural provinces, nominative singular province, nominative plural provinces)Category:Old French lemmas#PROVINCECategory:Old French nouns#PROVINCECategory:Old French feminine nouns#PROVINCECategory:Old French entries with incorrect language header#PROVINCECategory:Old French feminine nouns#PROVINCECategory:Pages with entries#PROVINCECategory:Pages with 8 entries#PROVINCE

1. province (subdivision of a territory)

References

• province on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub
• Frédéric Godefroy (1880–1902), “province”, in Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle […], Paris: F[riedrich] Vieweg; Émile Bouillon, →OCLC.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʀɔ.vɛ̃s/Category:Walloon terms with IPA pronunciation#PROVINCE

Noun

province f (plural provinces)Category:Walloon lemmas#PROVINCECategory:Walloon nouns#PROVINCECategory:Walloon entries with incorrect language header#PROVINCECategory:Walloon feminine nouns#PROVINCECategory:Pages with entries#PROVINCECategory:Pages with 8 entries#PROVINCE

1. province