Provident
adj ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Possessing, exercising, or demonstrating great care and consideration for the future.
"I saw your brother, Most provident in peril, bind himself, Courage and hope both teaching him the practise, To a strong mast that lived upon the sea;"
- 2 Showing care in the use of something (especially money or provisions), so as to avoid wasting it.
"Grant us thy grace that we may be diligent in our businesse, just in our charges, provident of our time, watchfull in our dutie, carefull of every word we speak."
- 3 Providing (for someone’s needs).
"These advantages [the soil] receives from the culture of seeds, exclusive of the rest and manure, which is scattered upon it by that most provident of all cattle, sheep […]"
- 1 providing carefully for the future wordnet
- 2 careful in regard to your own interests wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"I saw your brother, Most provident in peril, bind himself, Courage and hope both teaching him the practise, To a strong mast that lived upon the sea;"
Etymology
From Middle English provident, from Latin prōvidēns, prōvidentis, present participle of prōvideō (“I foresee; I am cautious; I provide”): compare French provident. By surface analysis, provide + -ent. Doublet of prudent.
Related phrases
More for "provident"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.