Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or resulting from divine providence.
  • adjective Happening as if through divine intervention; opportune. synonym: fortunate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Effected by the providence of God; proceeding from divine direction; referable to divine providence.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Effected by, or referable to, divine direction or superintendence

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Fortunate as if occurring as a gift from a deity.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective resulting from divine providence
  • adjective peculiarly fortunate or appropriate; as if by divine intervention
  • adjective relating to or characteristic of providence

Etymologies

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Examples

  • I use the term providential, at the same time that I believe nothing happens to us which is not subject to God's providing care.

    The Cruise of the Mary Rose Here and There in the Pacific William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

  • If the Squire had been a better farmer and less interested in books, especially in his yellow-backed law-books, the eking might not have been so continuous; and if his good wife had not been snatched away, at untimely thirty-five, by one of those accidents which we call providential, leaving a forty-year - old father alone with a five-year-old boy, her good sense would undoubtedly have made times easier with the Squire.

    Our Nervous Friends — Illustrating the Mastery of Nervousness Robert S. Carroll

  • Young, fit and Caucasian, Snow is a chiropractor and acupuncturist based in Johnson County who began to buy time on KPRT after what he calls a providential encounter with a listener.

    KansasCity.com: Front Page 2011

  • Young, fit and Caucasian, Snow is a chiropractor and acupuncturist based in Johnson County who began to buy time on KPRT after what he calls a providential encounter with a listener.

    KansasCity.com: Front Page 2011

  • But just because Darwinism (as also quantum theory) is making statistical statements rather than metaphysical statements; their belief in providential control and predestination are completely consistent with their belief in the randomness of mutations as postulated by Darwinism.

    Clear Thinking? 2005

  • "That, now, is what I call a providential circumstance; indeed, from all

    Will Weatherhelm The Yarn of an Old Sailor William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

  • Ultraconservative benefactor and ally, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon is one among religious figures who describe their own adulterous affairs as "providential" -- ordained by God -- even as he condemns women for that "worst of all sins."

    Michele Swenson: Male Entitlement: Church & State Preserve Male Prerogatives, Female Punishments 2010

  • His anger was against them to such a degree that he determined to cast them out from his presence, his favourable gracious presence, as a father, when he is extremely angry with an undutiful son, bids him get out of his presence, he expelled them from that good land that had such tokens of his presence in providential bounty and that holy city and temple that had such tokens of his presence in covenant-grace and love.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi) 1721

  • Given Moulsworth's intense interest in providential and poetic patterning, it hardly seems coincidental that she should stress that her "second" husband died "on a double sainted day," and that he "tooke his happy way" both "to Jude, & Symon" (ll.

    My Name Was Martha: A Renaissance Woman's Autobiographical Poem 1993

  • Gradually, American writers extracted the idea of providential mission from its previous identification with Great Britain as a whole.

    The Chosen Peoples Todd Gitlin 2010

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