Definitions

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

  • adjective Of or relating to a province.
  • adjective Of or characteristic of people from the provinces; not fashionable or sophisticated.
  • adjective Limited in perspective; narrow and self-centered.
  • noun A native or inhabitant of the provinces.
  • noun A person who has provincial ideas or habits.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to Provence; Provençal.
  • A rosette of ribbons formerly worn on a shoe; a shoe-rose.
  • Of or pertaining to a province; existing in a province; characteristic of a province: as, a provincial government; a provincial dialect.
  • Forming a province or territory appendant to a principal kingdom or state: as, provincial territory.
  • Pertaining to an ecclesiastical province, or to the jurisdiction of an arch bishop; not ecumenical: as, a provincial council.
  • Exhibiting the manners of a province; characteristic of the inhabitants of a province, or of the country as distinguished from the metropolis or larger cities; countrified; rustic; hence, not polished; narrow; unenlightened.
  • Restricted to a province; local.
  • noun A person belonging to a province; one from any part of the country except the metropolis or one of the larger cities.
  • noun In some religious orders, a monastic superior who has the general superintendence of his fraternity in a given district called a province.

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

  • noun A person belonging to a province; one who is provincial.
  • noun (R. C. Ch.) 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.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to province; constituting a province
  • adjective Exhibiting the ways or manners of a province; characteristic of the inhabitants of a province; not cosmopolitan; countrified; not polished; rude; hence, narrow; illiberal.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical province, or to the jurisdiction of an archbishop; not ecumenical.
  • adjective obsolete Of or pertaining to Provence; Provencal.

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

  • adjective Of or pertaining to province; constituting a province; as, a provincial government; a provincial dialect.
  • adjective Exhibiting the ways or manners of a province; characteristic of the inhabitants of a province.
  • adjective Not cosmopolitan; countrified; not polished; rude; hence, narrow; illiberal.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical province, or to the jurisdiction of an archbishop; not ecumenical; as, a provincial synod.
  • adjective obsolete Of or pertaining to Provence; Provencal.
  • adjective limited in outlook; narrow
  • noun A person belonging to a province; one who is provincial.
  • noun 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.
  • noun A country bumpkin.

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

  • noun a country person
  • adjective of or associated with a province
  • noun (Roman Catholic Church) an official in charge of an ecclesiastical province acting under the superior general of a religious order
  • adjective characteristic of the provinces or their people

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin provincialis ("province"), confer Provencal.

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Examples

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  • Another WeirdNET special.

    June 13, 2008

  • The provincials: those dogged but lumbering fellows who are never quite up with the fashions however much they perspire after them. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.

    December 24, 2008

  • characteristic of a limited perspective; not fashionable or sophisticated

    Maggie's enthusiasm about her high school teams seemed provincial to her college classmates, all of whom were following a nationally ranked college team.

    October 19, 2016