Provenance

//ˈpɹɑ.və.nəns// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Place or source of origin. countable, uncountable

    "Many supermarkets display the provenance of their food products."

  2. 2
    where something originated or was nurtured in its early existence wordnet
  3. 3
    The place and time of origin of some artifact or other object. See Usage notes below. countable, uncountable

    "This spear is of Viking provenance."

  4. 4
    The history of ownership of a work of art. countable, uncountable

    "The picture is of royal provenance."

  5. 5
    The copy history of a piece of data, or the intermediate pieces of data used to compute a final data element, as in a database record or web site (data provenance). countable, uncountable
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  1. 6
    The execution history of computer processes which were used to compute a final piece of data (process provenance). countable, uncountable
  2. 7
    Background; history; place of origin. countable, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To establish the provenance of something

Synonyms

All synonyms
ancestrybeginningbirthplacebirthplacechain of custodycommencement

Example

More examples

"The word's provenance is unclear."

Etymology

Borrowed from French provenance (“origin”), from Middle French provenant, present participle of provenir (“come forth, arise”), from Latin provenio (“to come forth”).

Related phrases

country of provenance

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.