Provisional

//pɹəˈvɪʒənəl// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A postage stamp issued locally before an official issue is released.
  2. 2
    a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army
  3. 3
    An interim denture.

    "If this was not possible, then alternatives including provisionalizing with a complete denture or a tooth-supported fixed provisional and a staged treatment protocol should have been considered."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Temporary, but with the intention of eventually becoming permanent or being replaced by a permanent equivalent. not-comparable

    "Marsden and Jones were named in the provisional squad for the European Championships, to be confirmed before the 30 June deadline."

Adjective
  1. 1
    under terms not final or fully worked out or agreed upon wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
interimprobationarytemporaryaccidentalad hocadventitious

Example

More examples

"We'll have our firm's attorneys look through the provisional agreement."

Etymology

From provision + -al, or else from Middle French provisionnal (modern French provisionnel). Compare Latin prōvīsiōnālis.

Related phrases

provisional governmentprovisional jobprovisional licensepostage stamp

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