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PROVIDENCE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The guardianship and control exercised by a deity
Example:
divine providence
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("providence" is a kind of...):
care; charge; guardianship; tutelage (attention and management implying responsibility for safety)
Derivation:
providential (resulting from divine providence)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The prudence and care exercised by someone in the management of resources
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("providence" is a kind of...):
prudence (discretion in practical affairs)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "providence"):
foresight; foresightedness; foresightfulness (providence by virtue of planning prudently for the future)
Antonym:
improvidence (a lack of prudence and care by someone in the management of resources)
Derivation:
provident (providing carefully for the future)
provident (careful in regard to your own interests)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The capital and largest city of Rhode Island; located in northeastern Rhode Island on Narragansett Bay; site of Brown University
Synonyms:
capital of Rhode Island; Providence
Classified under:
Nouns denoting spatial position
Instance hypernyms:
state capital (the capital city of a political subdivision of a country)
Holonyms ("Providence" is a part of...):
Little Rhody; Ocean State; R.I.; Rhode Island; RI (a state in New England; one of the original 13 colonies; the smallest state)
Sense 4
Meaning:
A manifestation of God's foresightful care for his creatures
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("providence" is a kind of...):
circumstances; destiny; fate; fortune; lot; luck; portion (your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you))
Derivation:
providential (resulting from divine providence)
Context examples:
The monitoring initiative is Project Providence led by Mamirauá Institute, a research arm of Brazil's Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation, and Communications (MCTIC).
(Amazon jungle animals to be monitored by sensors, Agência Brasil)
“As I was saying,” he went on, as though nothing unwonted had happened, “the shark was not in the reckoning. It was—ahem—shall we say Providence?”
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
A team led by Dr. Rena Wing of Brown University and Miriam Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, examined the effectiveness of interventions to prevent or reduce weight gain in young adults.
(Strategies successfully reduce weight gain in young adults, NIH)
The research was conducted by the Brown University Superfund Research Center, Providence, Rhode Island.
(Graphene shield shows promise in blocking mosquito bites, National Institutes of Health)
We were all disposed to wonder, but it seems to have been the merciful appointment of Providence that the heart which knew no guile should not suffer.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
From Providence to Burgundy we are beset by every prowling hireling in Christendom, who rend and tear the country which you have left too weak to guard her own marches.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
In choosing persons for all employments, they have more regard to good morals than to great abilities; for, since government is necessary to mankind, they believe, that the common size of human understanding is fitted to some station or other; and that Providence never intended to make the management of public affairs a mystery to be comprehended only by a few persons of sublime genius, of which there seldom are three born in an age: but they suppose truth, justice, temperance, and the like, to be in every man’s power; the practice of which virtues, assisted by experience and a good intention, would qualify any man for the service of his country, except where a course of study is required.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Oh, Providence! sustain me a little longer!
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
“Why, yes,” returned the captain, scratching his head; “and making a large allowance, sir, for all the gifts of Providence, I should say we were pretty close hauled.”
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
