Dictionary

provide en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• prə-vīdʹ
• /pɹəˈvaɪd/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English providen, from Latin prōvidēre (“to foresee, act with foresight”). Doublet of purvey.

Meanings

1. To make a living; earn money for necessities.
   • It is difficult to provide for my family working on minimum wage.
2. To act to prepare for something.
   • provide against disaster.
3. To establish as a previous condition; to stipulate.
   • I'll lend you the money, provided that you pay it back by Monday.
   • The contract provides that the work be well done.
4. To give what is needed or desired, especially basic needs.
   • Humans provided the animals with food and protection in exchange for which the animals provided the humans their milk, eggs, and—yes—their flesh. 2006, Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 320:
   • LSC provides grants to nonprofits nationwide that in turn provide civil legal aid to those who otherwise can't afford it. The beneficiaries of LSC funding include homeless veterans, low-income workers and victims of domestic abuse. 2017 March 9, Jeanne Sahadi, “Lawyers fear Trump may kill legal aid funding for the poor”, in CNN Business, archived from the original on 05 May 2025:
   • We aim to provide the local community with more green spaces.
   • This resort provides an evening meal for its guests.
   • Don't bother bringing equipment, as we will provide it.
   • Climate Reanalyzer uses data from the NCEP climate forecast system to provide a time series of daily mean two-metre air temperature, based on readings from surface, air balloon and satellite observations. 2023 July 7, “UN says climate change ‘out of control’ after likely hottest week on record”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
5. To furnish (with), cause to be present, supply.
   • Rome […] was generally well provided with corn. 1727, John Arbuthnot, Tables of Ancient Coins, Weights and Measures. Explain'd and exemplify'd in several dissertations:
6. To make possible or attainable.
   • Plants provide (us) with the oxygen we breathe.
   • Bring me berries, or such cooling fruit / As the kind, hospitable woods provide. 1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC:
   • He provides us with an alternative option.
7. (Latinism, obsolete) To foresee, to consider in advance.
   • We have not been covetous, honourable fathers, to change, neither is it now any new lust that alters our affection, or old lothing, but those needful jealousies of state, that warn wiser princes hourly to provide their safety, and do teach them how learned a thing it is to beware of the humblest enemy; much more of those great ones, whom their own employed favours have made fit for their fears. 1603 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, Seianus His Fall, London: […] G[eorge] Elld, for Thomas Thorpe, published 1605, →OCLC, (please specify the page):
   • As for those that will (by faults which charity hath raked up, or common honesty concealed) make themselves a name with the multitude, or, to draw their rude and beastly claps, care not whose living faces they intrench with their petulant styles, may they do it without a rival, for me! I choose rather to live graved in obscurity, than share with them in so preposterous a fame. Nor can I blame the wishes of those severe and wise patriots, who providing the hurts these licentious spirits may do in a state, desire rather to see fools and devils, and those antique relics of barbarism retrieved, with all other ridiculous and exploded follies, than behold the wounds of private men, of princes and nations 1606, Ben Jonson, Volpone, Dedication, in Gifford’s 1816 edition volume III page 164:
8. To appoint to an ecclesiastical benefice before it is vacant. See provisor.
   • provide such natives to the higher dignities of the church 1838, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: American Stationers’ Company; John B. Russell, →OCLC:

Forms

Deriveds

unprovide · foreprovide · providee · nonprovided · provider · misprovide · underprovide · as provided for · preprovide · disprovide · providable · reprovide · unprovided · underprovided · improvided

Relateds

provision

Synonyms

treat · afford

Translations (118)

es proporcionar (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · de vorsehen (to establish as a previous condition) · ca proveir (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · nl een dienst verlenen (earn money for necessities) · sh opskrbiti (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · cmn 發放 /发放 (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · ru обеспе́чить (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · de besorgen (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · af voorsien (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · it soddisfare (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · pt prover (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · ru обеспе́чить (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · pl aprowidować (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · pl dostarczyć (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · ta வழங்கு (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · bg давам (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · hu megszab (to establish as a previous condition) · cmn 提供 (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · vi cung cấp (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · de versorgen (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · ja 供給する (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · hu ad (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · es providenciar (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · cmn 供應 /供应 (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · eo provizi (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · el παρέχω (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · izh elättää (earn money for necessities) · ca suposar (to establish as a previous condition) · sh obezbijediti (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · ru обеспе́чивать (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · it fornire (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · it erogare (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · fi elättää (earn money for necessities) · de voraussetzen (to establish as a previous condition) · hu kiköt (to establish as a previous condition) · oc provesir (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · ru снабжа́ть (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · cu принести (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · nl voorzien (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · hu felszerel (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · ru обеспе́чивать (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · de versorgen (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · grc ἐκπορίζω (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · fr procurer (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · de versehen (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · cmn 供給 /供给 (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · hu ellát (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · hu biztosít (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · sh obezbediti (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · hu nyújt (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · de beibringen (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · it provvedere (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · pl zaprowidować (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · hu szolgáltat (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · da forsørge (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · hu nyújt (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · ro oferi (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · pt prover (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · de den Unterhalt sichern (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · km ផ្ដល់ (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · gl prover (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · fi tarjota (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · fi tulla toimeen (earn money for necessities) · da forsyne (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · de liefern (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · sv förse (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · ko 공급하다 (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · cmn 供給 /供给 (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · vi kiếm tiền (earn money for necessities) · de beschaffen (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · sv förutsatt (to establish as a previous condition) · pl dostarczać (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · gl prover (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · hu beszerez (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · uk надава́ти (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · hu biztosít (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · pl zaaprowidować (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · ar زَوَّدَ (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · bg снабдявам (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · sv försörja (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · nl verstrekken (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · fi edellyttää (to establish as a previous condition) · grc ὁράω (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · bg поставям условие (to establish as a previous condition) · nl verschaffen (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · he לספק (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · ja 供給する (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · grc παρέχω (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · bg доставям (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · hu gondoskodik (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · fi varustaa (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · de vorlegen (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · eo havigi (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · es brindar (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · de sorgen (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · ru снабди́ть (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · de heranschaffen (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · fr fournir (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · da forudsætte (to establish as a previous condition) · it supporre (to establish as a previous condition) · la video (to establish as a previous condition) · fr pourvoir (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · vi quy định (to establish as a previous condition) · af voorsien (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · hu ellát (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · nn forsyte (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · sv förse (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · de ausstatten (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · hu rendelkezik (to establish as a previous condition) · mi whakarato (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · nl voorzien (intransitive: to furnish (with)) · nb forsørge (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · it prevedere (to establish as a previous condition) · bg обезпечавам (earn money for necessities) · uk забезпе́чувати (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · cs poskytnout (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · eu hornitu (transitive: to give what is needed or desired) · es proveer (transitive: to give what is needed or desired)