PROVIDENCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Providence mean? 

• PROVIDENCE (noun)
  The noun PROVIDENCE has 4 senses:

1. the capital and largest city of Rhode Island; located in northeastern Rhode Island on Narragansett Bay; site of Brown University

2. the guardianship and control exercised by a deity

3. a manifestation of God's foresightful care for his creatures

4. the prudence and care exercised by someone in the management of resources

  Familiarity information: PROVIDENCE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PROVIDENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The capital and largest city of Rhode Island; located in northeastern Rhode Island on Narragansett Bay; site of Brown University

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

capital of Rhode Island; Providence

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 2

Meaning:

The guardianship and control exercised by a deity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

divine providence

Hypernyms ("providence" is a kind of...):

care; charge; guardianship; tutelage (attention and management implying responsibility for safety)

Derivation:

providential (resulting from divine providence)

Sense 3

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)

Sense 4

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)

 Context examples 

Her presence had seemed a blessing to them, but it would be unfair to her to keep her in poverty and want when Providence afforded her such powerful protection.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

We can only regard it as a special Providence that you should chance to be here at the time, for in all England you are the one man we need.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

God directed me to a correct choice: I thank His providence for the guidance!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“With the blessing of Providence, Master Copperfield,” returned Uriah.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I do believe that under God's providence I have made a discovery.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

But it were Providence that put me here.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

It was a just providence that killed him.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Providence had taken her at her word.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Chance, or shall I not rather say Providence, had at last made clear all that had been dark, and given me the means of establishing my innocence.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Putting all these very extraordinary circumstances together," said Captain Wentworth, "we must consider it to be the arrangement of Providence, that you should not be introduced to your cousin."

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)